The Wolf and The Dark Knight
by TheInvisibleGurlz
Summary: Robin is a werewolf! he'll meet some strange new friends with secrets of their own. will he be able to handle his new life? rated T because I'm a little paranoid. i don't own Maximum Ride or Young Justice. i also don't own the song lyrics used or teen wolf, which i based part of a chapter on.
1. Chapter 1

Dick Grayson was an extraordinary young boy. He had spent the majority of his life as an acrobat in a traveling circus. Haley's circus to be exact. His parents had also been acrobats. That is, until they were murdered by a man named Zucco on a warm August night. That night made poor little nine year old Richard John Grayson an orphan and would change his life forever. After that a kind hearted man named Bruce Wayne, a billionaire who had suffered a similar trauma, took him in and gave him a home. Little did the child know that Bruce Wayne led a secret life. A secluded life. Bruce was a creature of the night who struck terror into the hearts of those who did evil. Bruce Wayne was Batman. One night, as the bat was investigating the unfortunate "accident" wrought by Zucco he stumbled upon Dick, doing the same. Batman was instantly impressed by the lad's skills and he revealed himself to the acrobat, placing his trust on him. Dick became the Bat's first sidekick: Robin. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now Dick was a teenager, about to turn fourteen. As Robin he had made friends with Kid flash (Wally West), Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm), Superboy (Connor Kent), Miss Martian (Megan, M'gann), and Artemis (Artemis Crock). He and these other adolescent heroes had formed an elite covert ops team for the Justice League. Aqualad acts as the leader of this well trained, well equipped team of fighters.

But nothing could have prepared Robin for what happened tonight.

Gotham city had been quiet, crime-wise; so Dick was asleep in his room. It was the night before his fourteenth birthday and nearly midnight when the dream came to him.

He was walking through a forest. He didn't know what forest or why, but he didn't think much of it. The air was dark. Not just the sky, the very air felt laden with darkness. There was a low hanging mist about his legs as he walked over grass, then dirt, then a tree root, then grass again. He walked until he stopped in a smallish clearing. He still hadn't the slightest idea what he was doing or why he was doing it.

Then he saw it. The wolf. This wolf was gray and black in color; and had a slightly familiar look to it, though Dick had never seen it before. Right then, the wolf stepped forward, towards Robin. And again. AND AGAIN! The normally intrepid dick, stepped back, and was then sprinting out of the clearing trying to escape whatever this creature wanted of him. But the wolf was too fast and was gaining rapidly. It felt like an eternity before he could see the trees thinning out at the edge of the forest at sunrise. He thought he would make it. But then the wolf appeared and lunged at Robin's back before he realized it. Or rather, _into_ his back. And at that moment, he could feel the wolf in him.

He screamed "No no nononono…"

"NO!" He awoke screaming and sat bolt upright in bed. He panted and realized that he had been sweating during the nightmare. His pillow and shirt were drenched in it. After he had caught his breath he still felt… weird. Like he still felt like the wolf could be inside him. But it was just a dream right? He looked over at the clock on his nightstand. 1:06 December first. The exact time of his birth. The exact time the weirdness started. At that very second, his hearing began to elevate, as did his sense of smell. This wasn't noticeable at first, though it would be later on. To shake the peculiar feeling that there was something wrong with him, he went to the bathroom.

After he had washed his hands, he splashed his face with icy cold water. He needed to wake up more; to lose this eerie sensation. But the sense only intensified. He then realized that he could be a danger. He didn't know how or why but he _knew_ that he was. He had to disappear.

Fortunately, he had prepared for times like this.

He walked back to his room and lifted up his mattress. He had kept an outfit underneath it in case he needed to vanish, so that he wouldn't be recognized by his clothes. Of course his black hair and fair skin were fairly clear anyway but it was a start. He didn't take his utility belt or his mask or uniform or even his shades; those could have tracers on them and right now, he didn't want to be found. After switching off his alarm; he grabbed a notepad and pen, wrote down a note to Bruce and left out of his window and down a neighboring tree. No idea where he was going, he just left.

"Goodbye Bruce. I'll see you again, I hope."


	2. Chapter 2

The morning had passed so well for Bruce. It was when Dick hadn't come down for breakfast on Friday morning that rattled him. It was getting late and Dick hadn't come down yet, he already should have left for school by this time. Batman went up to his room to wake him up and probably tell him off for being late. Perhaps he was sick? Hopefully he wasn't sick on his birthday…

He knocked on the door. No answer.

"Dick? Richard?" Still no answer.

He opened the door and gasped. Dick wasn't in his room but his bed was perfectly made, the mattress seemed moved slightly, and there was a note on the pillow.

It read:

_Dear Bruce,_

_In case you haven't noticed, I've left. While I can't tell you why, I want you to know that it wasn't anything you did or said. You've probably already deduced where I might have gone, even if I don't know yet, so please don't look for me. I will come back when I get a few things sorted out. I will miss you dearly._

_Yours truly,_

_Dick_

Needless to say, Bruce was shocked. Whatever had possessed little Dick to leave, it was personal enough to make him not want to tell _anyone. _By now the note which had been written so neatly was smeared and blurred with tears. Heck, poor Bruce was beside himself.

"Now what's got you so upset, Master Bruce?" asked Alfred.

"Dick's gone, Alfred. He left a note."

"My dear! Now why would he leave like that?"

"I don't know, he didn't say."

Alfred simply sat beside Bruce as the man mourned his son. He could not believe the pain he felt. It felt like he had really lost a piece of himself. He could only hope that Dick would be safe.


	3. Chapter 3

After jumping from a branch onto the ground, Dick began to notice his enhanced hearing. Granted his senses had always been top notch but this was next-level. He could hear Bruce snoring as the Boy Wonder forlornly watched him sleep through the window.

"Goodbye," he whispered as he slunk away into the night.

He had run pretty far by sunrise. He had found himself in Gotham Forest. The place scared him a bit, reminded of his horrid vision. But still, he pressed on; taking comfort in the fact that dawn was breaking and that there were no wolves around Gotham. Besides, Gotham forest looked nothing like the forest of his dreams. He climbed a tree just as the first rays of the sun peaked through, so that he wouldn't be seen. After a half hour boredom had set in so Robin began to do something completely unexpected. He began to sing. He sang every song he knew and sang them again until he fell into deep sleep.

He awoke to a rustling in the trees.

"What the heck?" whispered the young detective. The rustling was his only answer, growing closer.

"Who's there? Answer me!" he demanded. More rustling, this time just above his head. He looked up but didn't see anything.

"Whatcha doin'?" chided a strange female voice.

Robin whirled to see a teenage girl, maybe a little younger than him. She had long dark brown hair, green eyes, and fair skin. A devious smile played on her lips revealing slightly yellowed teeth.

"Who are you?" Dick asked, utterly shocked at her sudden arrival.

"Just a friend. More like a guardian actually," she chuckled at something only she understood, then turned her attention back to him.

"I don't know you, so how could you possibly be my friend?" he asked, trying to look hostile.

"I was lying in bed when I got the strangest feeling. I felt like I had to keep someone safe, and I had this crystal clear image of you in my head, so I came here. Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he lied.

"That's a lie and you know it. Well, whatever's bugging you, you can come to me about it. I know this really cool place. It's the perfect place to lose yourself or even find yourself. And I'd like you to come with me. Please?" she sounded so polite, and so friendly. For whatever reason, any street savvy he had had went out the window.

"Alright. I'd love to go." He knew he could easily take her down anyway.

"Awesome! Come with me." And with that she jumped from the branch and stuck the landing on the ground. Dick slithered down the tree, finding the girl waiting patiently for him at the bottom.

"We have to take a boat to get there; it's an island you know. I hid mine on the Gotham river bank."

"Wait!" Dick called after her, "Why are you taking me to an island? Where is this island? And_ who are you_?!"

"I'm taking you to an island because, in my experience, isolation is the best way to calm the mind. The location of this particular island is in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Don't worry, you can leave whenever you're ready to. As for me, you can call me Owl, like the bird." This last remark puzzled Dick. Normally, he would run for his life if someone wanted to take him out of town, let alone the state. Yet, he felt like he was okay with this 'Owl' and he felt safe with her.

"And these are my friends," she piped up, startling Dick. "Hawk," she motioned to a tall girl with light brown hair "and Osprey." Owl pointed to a girl with short black-brown, mostly black, hair. She paused, "what's your name?"

"Um, Robin." The boy immediately regretted this. What if they found out that he _was _Robin? Would they keep his secret? They didn't seem like they were from around here, and they didn't react with surprise at the slightly girly alias; so he decided to change the subject.

"How did you get your names?" he asked as he climbed into the boat that Owl had pulled out from behind some trees. She and Hawk stayed outside the boat while he and Osprey got in. The girls looked nothing like birds, so Grayson couldn't figure out why these were their names.

"We chose them, is that a problem?" Hawk replied, annoyance flickering in her eyes.

"No," not wanting to offend any of them, he simply ended the conversation there.

Owl and Hawk gave the inflatable boat a push into the water and then climbed in. Owl started the engine and they sped down river. Robin fell asleep to the low growling of the boat propellers and was awakened by Owl shaking him gently and saying "we're here."

"It's getting kind of late, do you want something to eat before you go to bed?"

"Bed?" Robin asked. He had no idea that they would have prepared for him. He grimaced as his steadily rising senses of hearing and smell picked up the aroma of pollution and the sound of machines, loud in his ears. He felt like he couldn't keep this a secret any longer.

"Owl, I need to tell you something."

"What? I'm here to listen."

"My senses are… going out of whack. I can hear machines but I don't see any. And I can smell something disgusting. Do you know what's going on? Please tell me."

"Are those the only two senses affected?"

Robin nodded.

"I can't be sure what's making your senses go this way, but I think the machines and the smell are from Three Mile Island, also known as TMI."

"What's TMI?"

"TMI is a nuclear power plant on this river. The machines you hear are just normal, everyday mechanics, the smell: pollution."

Dick was silent for a moment.

"Come on, let's get you some food. It's a full moon tonight by the way, and we always try to beat the moon to bed. No reason, just stupid teenager antics." If Owl was lying then she was a very good liar. Dick didn't suspect a thing.

At that very moment an owl flew in, a flash of white that landed on Owl's shoulder.

"Oh, I should introduce you to our little guardians here. This is Snow, no she is not a snowy owl. She is a barn owl. Hawk has a red-tailed hawk named Blood, because of the red tail and Osprey has an osprey named Osborne, get it? Osprey Osborne, like the prince of darkness? Hehe. Well, come on! I think the others have dinner cooking."

Robin ate in total silence most of the time. Instead, he listened to the girls talk. He was surprised to find that whatever they said wasn't in English. He couldn't understand the language, though it sounded vaguely European and fluid. He finally asked "what are you saying?"

This time Osprey spoke to him, "If we wanted you to know then we would be speaking in English. Sorry Robin, but this is a kind of private conversation, mostly girl stuff that you wouldn't understand."

Robin grunted. Osprey had a high-pitched voice and sounded slightly insane, like a fan-girl. She probably was. Whatever. He looked down at the meal he was eating. He had one plate while the girls had had three each. They ate like _speedsters_. Whatever it was, he actually found it tasty.  
"What's in here?" Robin asked, gesturing to the food.

Owl spoke, "Are you sure you want to know?" the same deviant smirk graced her lips.

Robin nodded.

"Okay, it's mostly bugs. Mealworms, stinkbugs; and then we add some plants. This time it's stinging nettle. Don't worry, the leaves are harmless and actually taste like spinach. To top it all off, we got lucky and found a couple of mice, we burned the fur off of them and cooked them in with the rest. We call it campfire stir-fry."

Poor Robin wasn't sure whether to smile or gag. The dish was delicious, but the surprising list of ingredients disgusted him. He decided to just keep nodding.

After the meal, Owl checked her watch.

"We have twenty minutes to moonset. Let's hit the hay."


	4. Chapter 4

Robin had followed the three girls to a nearby rock with a spray painted, neon pink circle on it. Each of them stepped inside the circle and promptly vanished, sliding down some hole. Owl insisted that he go before her and while he was hesitant, he dared not argue with the girl who enjoyed bugs and mice as _food_. As he stepped into the circle he could feel himself slipping down a hole that was just big enough for an adult and steep enough to slide down. He found himself landing on a large pillow and he stared about the room. There were three mattresses and some blankets, about six total. The floor was inexplicably sandy.

He got up from the pillow when he heard Owl's voice just above, yelling "I'm coming down!"

"What is this place?" he asked.

"We don't really have a name for it. We just call it the caves." Replied Hawk.

"Caves? Plural?"

Owl chirped up "Yep. We have several of them. You can have the guest cave for the time being. I'll show you." She began to walk towards a hole in the wall of the cavern and Robin followed.

"So you and Hawk and Osprey really share a cave?" he began.

"Yep. We have a campout here every full moon just to have that moon thing." Again, lying.

"Then why do you have a guest cave if it's supposed to be private?"

"If someone, like you for instance, needs help and ends up on this island for more than a few hours, we want them to have somewhere to sleep. Anyway, here's your cave. Make yourself at home." She said with a smile and walked away, leaving Robin at the entrance. He looked at the cave they had just walked through, and what he saw took his breath away.

The place was beautiful. There weren't any mattresses on the floor, just a pool of crystal clear water surrounded by rocks. A hole was in the ceiling, revealing the night sky and reflecting it in the pool. It was utterly striking. With a sigh, he walked into his cave and laid down on the soft mattress; pulling one of two blankets over him, then the other one to help fight the cold. Now taking full notice of his hearing, he was amazed at how sensitive it had become. He could not only hear his new friends' snoring, oh no, he could hear their _heartbeats! _ In fact, he heard eight throbbing heartbeats on the island alone, counting himself. He could also hear the conversations of employees at TMI, which he guessed was miles away. And the smell of everything was overwhelming. He didn't think he would be able to sleep that night, so he got out of bed and walked to the door of his cave to continue admiring the main cavern.

In doing so, he suddenly realized that he still had his earpiece communicator in his ear. Still not wanting to be found he pulled it out, squashed it between his fingers and tossed it in the pool. His strength astonished him. He had always been strong, he had even punched a hole into a concrete wall, but he had broken his com with almost no effort. He shrugged it off and looked at the pool, which now reflected the stars and moon perfectly. He paused, then looked up into the hole at the full, round moon. And then he felt it. The strange feeling that had been eating at him the whole day suddenly went away and was replaced with blinding pain. Robin screamed. He had never felt this much pain in his entire life. He somehow knew he couldn't control what was happening, so he just let it happen. And then he blacked out.

Rachel had been drifting off when her hyper-sensitive ears picked up Robin in the Moon Cave; the only cave that had a name. She was nervous when she met him, and didn't want to be confused with another girl he might know with the same name, so she told him that her name was Owl. She also concealed Abby's identity as Hawk and Nicole's as Osprey. Any who, she had just heard a tiny plink into the pool when she felt something wrong. The brown haired girl got up and went to investigate when she was taken over by the moon. She was a sucker for the full moon. Anytime she or the other two were hit by its light their minds were reduced to the minds of their feathered guardians. The truth that she had not told Robin was about to come out. But not before she noticed it. Robin was hunched over in pain. It was a freezing cold night but he had taken off every piece of clothing he had, save for his pants. He was growling like a dog. And then she was taken over.

Robin Woke up the next morning well past sunrise. Nothing really caused him to wake up, he just did. He looked around him and paused, mid-yawn as he was startled to find that he was not in a cave as he remembered but instead among trees on the island.

"What happened last night?" he groaned. The boy wonder was then greeted by a gratefully familiar sight.

"Hey Robin. I'm going for a walk, do you want to come with me?" Asked Owl.

A bright white smile spread across Robin's lips. "Sure!" he then startled himself; he had no clue why he was so excited to simply take a walk. "What in the…" he trailed off, trying to make sense of what was going on. His senses were still on an inhuman levels, but seemed to have stopped rising in intensity.

"What's wrong?" asked Owl, concern plaguing her voice as she sat down to face him.

"I don't know. Things have been really weird lately. For instance, my senses of hearing and smell are reaching… _unnatural_ levels of sensitivity. I… I can hear your heartbeat."

Owl cocked her head but didn't say anything, a sympathetic look plastered to her face.

"And…and. Ugh, something happened last night. I don't remember what but I think I did something and I've got this weird feeling like I'm sick or something's wrong with me. Can you explain that?" desperation was obvious in his tone.

"I agree, I think something happened last night. I can't remember anything, but from what I can gather: I think you tried to kill me."

Robin was taken aback by this. _Tried to _kill _her? How? Why? _He couldn't remember anything but he knew that he would never, _ever, _kill.

"How could I… I mean… I would never…" Robin simply had no words to describe the emotions that were churning inside him.

"Robin, please listen to me. There is no easy way to say this. I think you may have been infected with a virus," Owl began cautiously.

"What virus? How?"

"The virus I think you may have is called lycanthropy."

"What the heck is that?" Robin was breathless; he couldn't believe what was happening.

"Lycanthropy is also called…" she paused. "Werewolfism."

Robin could do nothing but blink his dark blue eyes. _Werewolf? _ There was no way.

"Come on, get real! How could I possibly be a werewolf?" he suddenly screeched.

"Well, have you been bitten recently?"

Robin shook his head.

"Had a blood transfusion or broke a vial of blood and stepped on it?"

"No."

"Then it's likely that this is a genetic thing. One of your parents must have had it. Usually, purebreds come of age when they turn 18 but you changed at, what, 13?"

Robin replied, "I turned 14 yesterday."

"Then you're a half-breed werewolf. I'm sorry."

Robin felt about to cry. "Please get away from me."

Owl didn't move, though she looked surprised.

"_Leave me alone!_" robin suddenly screamed.

Owl simply nodded dejectedly and vanished. There were no footprints on the ground, no rustling if she had jumped into a tree. She simply disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Leave me alone!"_ screamed the poor Robin. Rachel had been shocked by the fact that Robin had lycanthropy and she knew he would be flabbergasted. But not like this. Not to the point to where he would yell at her like that. But, not wanting to get him angry for fear of making him shift, she quietly opened her stark white wings while he wasn't looking and flew away to a nearby island. And there, letting her wings out behind her, she sat and thought.

She thought about the way Robin must be feeling about this. Probably in total denial, she could understand that and it helped her identify with and forgive his actions.

She thought about her faith and knew that God had told her to help him with this difficult part in his life. For Pete's sake, he already had teenage angst and then you add in a heaping cup werewolf?! That had to be tough. So she asked for God's help in guiding him on his journey and protection as she dealt with a werewolf.

But mostly she thought about her own transformation. Her's and her friends'. _Maximum Ride. _That was how it started; a pipe dream about being part bird and being able to fly so high over her problems…

So she did. She began experimenting on rats and found a way to fuse animals and humans. She asked for Abby and Nicole's consent to see if it was safe to use on humans. If her math was correct, Maximum Ride was about forty percent bird DNA away and not the two percent mentioned in the books. Getting consent, Rachel had tested the formula on herself and Abby after choosing their bird types and later on: pets. Nicole had hung back while Rachel worked on a way to both dye what normally would have been dark brown wings black, as well as not ending up with a mutated, grotesque manimal on her hands due to the fact that Nicole was a girl while Osborne was male. In the end, all three experiments had proven to be non-lethal to the subjects.

Of course, the REAL experiment happened over the next month as each girl endured pain after pain after pain. You'd expect it to hurt if you were growing _wings_ out of your back wouldn't you? And it wasn't just the wings. Their entire bodies, inside and out, had to change just to accommodate the new developments. In fact, the last week was spent in a tall tree in order to breathe while their lungs and new air sacks adjusted to be able to tolerate thinner air at higher altitudes and thicker air at lower ones. And while their sense of smell had been nearly ruined by the fact that birds have a lousy nose, they certainly made up for it. Each of their eyes had been changed for extreme distance and even night-vision. Their ears were so sensitive that they could hear a heart beating from a mile away. And their muscles had grown so much stronger. Even the barn owl Snow could break your arm just by squeezing it. While they were all trained fighters and could kick your butt on any day of the week, Rachel was by far the best. They were supernaturally strong. Even a few extra mutations were in the package. Abby was amazingly fast like her hawk, somehow able to fly at mach _5! _Nicole was acrobatic in flight with a strong stomach and equilibrium. This definitely hadn't come from the osprey in the formula so no one had the slightest clue where it came from. Rachel had no mutations that her owl didn't have, but she was incredibly stealthy in flight. This was due to the serrated feathers that owls have in order to hunt without being heard.

Rachel ruffled 15 feet of creamy colored wings with brown spots on the outside and pure white on the inside, and then dozed off for while. She almost never slept at night, not with these nocturnal instincts. She hoped that Abby and Nicole were okay and that, maybe, they could be completely honest with him today.

"Abby, Nicole. We need to talk. I'm on one of the islands, the one with all the spruce trees. We can talk in one of those." Rachel said into the communicator that was built into her watch.

"Alright we'll be there." Was the reply.

After Abby and Nicole had arrived with their feathered counterparts, they talked.

"So you want to tell Robin about us?" Abby asked, slightly angered at the idea.

"Well, how did you feel when you lied to him?" Rachel countered.

Abby sighed. "Why should we tell him, anyway?"

"Can you keep it a secret between us and him?"

The two other girls nodded.

"Robin is a werewolf. I think he may have lost control last night."

At this, the girls simply gawked.

"I lost control too, so I can't remember anything. But I think he may have chased me around the island before I escaped. Please don't be scared of him, please. He's just a kid and we will work on a cure if he wants one. He needs help. I think that's why God told me to look after him."

Abby thought about it for a moment, then said, "Alright, we can keep a secret, and we'll tell him. But I want him to know our names too. Hawk sounds cool but I'm just not used to it."

Rachel replied, "Okay. Nicole?"  
"Fine. We're going to regret this, but we'll tell him."

"Maybe we should show him how to control it too? If we can't find a cure, or if said cure has to wait, then it would be kind of dangerous to have him turning into a wolf at night and hurting people."

Abby piped up, "Correction, _you _are going to show him. You're the one who knows everything there is to know about cryptids."

"Fine."

And the three spread their wings; Rachel with her creamy white, Abby with her chocolate brown, and Nicole with 16 feet of night black feathers.

And they flew off to tell Robin the whole truth.


	6. Chapter 6

Dick couldn't believe this. He simply couldn't. How could he be a werewolf? His parents never showed any signs when they were alive, right?

He decided to take a walk, now alone on the island with his own and the single, unaccounted-for heartbeat. As he was walking through the dense trees he stumbled upon something strange.

It looked like a tree had fallen down. Surely if the tree had fallen on its own he would have heard it, right? As he stepped towards the mangled wood, he saw that it hadn't fallen by sheer bad luck. It had been pushed by something, something with claws. When he touched the tree, he was struck with a vision. Either a vision; or a memory.

It was dark, but he could still see; kind of. There were no real colors and he was short, about the height of a dog or a wolf. He was running on all fours. He remembered looking down and seeing not hands but gunmetal gray paws. He was chasing something big. He looked up again and spotted his prey: a figure that looked like a human but had wings like an angel. He couldn't make out any facial features so he didn't know who it was. Said creature was flying ahead of him and just dodged a dead tree trunk. Wolf-Dick had no time to side step it so he simply jumped on top of it, trying to scare his prey and causing the tree to topple to the ground. He ran off and the flashback ended, leaving the human Dick in shock.

He really was a werewolf! Last night was a full moon and he guessed that he had lost control and chased something. That was all he could remember. He had to get away from the tree. So he ran back to the caves and sat down in his own.

He knew that if Batman had been there, he would have been yelled at. Bruce would have killed him for freaking out the way that he did. But Batman wasn't here, so Robin cried. He cried at being a monster. He cried at losing his parents. And then he remembered something: He had never been in a circus show on a full moon night. His father had always acted very sick and being the leader of the family of acrobats, they never performed on those nights. His dad wasn't really sick; he was making sure that he didn't turn on those nights.

Dick had never been very religious in his life. His parents were Christians so he knew God but had never given his life to him although his parents were pressing it. When he moved in with Bruce he kind of left his faith behind as he felt somewhat uncomfortable discussing a touchy subject with him, though he still remembered God. Now he prayed. He asked God for forgiveness and help dealing with his new abilities. After he said "amen" he felt…different. Not like there was something wrong with him, that feeling seemed to vanish as he accepted his fate. He felt like he was okay, like death wasn't too big of a problem. He wasn't suicidal; he just… didn't fear death. It was a good feeling.

Wiping dried tears from his eyes, he heard his alias come shyly from outside of his door.

"Robin? We need to talk to you." The Voice was Owl's.

"Come in."

As Owl, Hawk and Osprey walked into his cave he began the conversation.

"What do you need to talk to me about?"

Hawk started, "We haven't been completely honest with you, Robin. For one, we didn't tell you our real names. Mine is Abby, not Hawk."

Robin blinked in surprise but said nothing.

Owl continued, "My name is Rachel."

"And I'm Nicole." said the girl who had previously been Osprey.

"I haven't been completely honest either. My name isn't Robin." He said carefully.

Rachel chirped, "Let me guess. You're the Batman's sidekick and that's why you told us your name was Robin."

Robin had no clue what to say. The Bat had told him to never tell anyone his secret, but this girl already knew even though he guessed she had never lived in Gotham.

"Yeah. My real name is Dick Grayson." He could tell nothing but the truth.

"That's not the only thing we've been dishonest about. We want to show you something." added Nicole. With that, she stood up and took off her jacket as Rachel and Abby did the same. What was underneath startled Robin even in the dark cave.

They were _armed!_ Abby had about five swords collapsed on a belt along with two guns and two knives. Nicole had a ton of knives as well as darts, some red and some blue. Two guns sat in holsters at her legs. Rachel was the most Frightening. She possessed about twenty handguns, mostly black and some metallic, plus another two knives. Clips and bullets made metallic clinks as the jacket dropped. Then the girls spread their wings.

They didn't spread them much for the confines of a small cave but the wings were easily seen. Rachel's stark white wings were out of place considering her brown hair and black guns. As she turned around to reveal the other side Dick saw that the backs were slightly off-white with brown flecks here and there. Abby's wings were darker brown and more uniform in color, though there were a few spots of white on the tops. Nicole's wings were the only ones to appear to match the girl. They were pure black and beautiful.

Rachel spoke next. "Six months ago we were involved in a few experiments that gave us bird DNA. We can fly anywhere; anytime, because we also can't molt. Any feathers lost re-grow almost instantly. Our Guardians: Snow, Blood, and Osborne have the same ability. We share DNA with them."

Robin was amazed but also curious. "Who did the experiments?" he wanted to know who did this to his friends, so he might make them pay.

"We did. We call them 'The Angel Experiments' because we were inspired by the _Maximum Ride _series."

"Well I'm a…" he trailed off, not wanting to say _werewolf._

"A werewolf?" Abby asked, finishing his sentence. "We know. Rachel told us."

"Is there a cure? Please, no mind games. I need to know."

"As of yet, I haven't found one. I'll keep looking and for the time being, I'll try to teach you how to control yourself so that you don't accidently hurt someone." replied Rachel.

Dick could only nod as she pulled him up and told him that training started now. Abby and Nicole had gone to find some lunch.

As they were walking in the woods, Dick thought of a question.

"How many people are on this island? I can hear our heartbeats, Abby and Nicole's as well as the birds' pulses too, but there's one more that isn't accounted for."

Rachel answered him, "Oh, that's Peter. He's a mountain lion but don't worry. He's well trained like our birds. He wouldn't hurt a fly unless Nicole told him to. And we can hear heartbeats too, so you don't need to keep telling us."

As they came to a small clearing, Rachel stopped and faced Dick.

"Alright, here's what I know about lycanthropes. They can shift on will, but it's tricky. They need to raise their heartbeat. A lot. Anger is a good way to help that. I'm not going to lie, this _will _hurt. It will feel like fire, but I want you to try. Think about something that makes you furious and feel it. Brace yourself for the pain and try to take control of your wolf body as quickly as possible, preferably as soon as you feel yourself start changing. It'll be easier."

With that, she started climbing a tree.

"Why are you climbing a tree? You trust me, right?" Dick asked.

"I'm climbing the tree because, if you do lose control, I know you don't want to hurt anybody. But I'll be here to help you. I can bring you out if it, if need be."

"Okay."

Dick focused as hard as he could to find something that made him angry. He thought about Zucco and how he killed his parents. He focused on that memory. But, for the life of him, he just couldn't shift.

"It's not working, Rachel. It just won't happen."

"Are you feeling the fury? You can meditate forever on a traumatic incident without getting mad. Think about whatever it is and then feel the anger as if it were happening. If that doesn't work, just exercise. It'll take longer but your heart rate will rise eventually."

Robin continued to focus, this time imagining the murder right in front of him and found that he felt the anger. Anger at Zucco for ruining his life, but mostly anger at himself for not being able to help. He was surprised but kept going and soon he felt a familiar sensation.

"AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHH!" he screamed. The same pain as last night had erupted in every part of his body. It felt just like he was burning and, even though it was still freezing, he took off his Jacket and shirt.

"Remember to take control, Dick! If you take control now and keep shifting and feeling that rage, it'll be easier to stay in control once you're done changing. Remember, _you _are in charge, not the wolf."

Dick tried to keep standing despite the pain and focused. He wasn't sure what it felt like to be in control, so he didn't know if he did it correctly or not. After the first few seconds of doubt though, he noticed that he felt more conscious of the environment than the first change. But that didn't make the pain stop.

Dick fell onto his hands and feet as he felt his knees reverse joint and his spine and ribs stretch upwards. He couldn't stop screaming. His lower back tingled and then ached as a tail stretch out wards. Fur was growing all over, so his clothes vanished as the hair took over his body. His hair was shortening and lightening to gray. His hands and feet burned as they shrank to paws and his thumbs slid up his forearm. His shoulder blades crunched and rose with his back and his head felt like it was submerged in acid. His ears glided up onto his now furry head as his face stretched into a wolf's muzzle, fangs taking the place of his teeth. His eyes had changed into an amber color when he started shifting and now they could really see the world, although he couldn't really see all that well. The color spectrum matched the one in his flashback. A dog's vision. He was so relieved when the pain finally ended that he didn't even notice Rachel drop out of the tree.

"Congratulations, Dick! You did it!" she beamed. Dick could smell the pride on her and he was proud of himself. He had successfully shifted without killing or hurting anything!

"Are you hungry? Abby and Nicole caught lunch. I think they're making stir-fry again. Maybe they got some flour and water and stuff and made bannock."

Dick whimpered, not able to make human sounds. Rachel simply smiled and seemed to read his mind.

"To change back, you need to lower your heart rate. Think about something that relaxes you. It'll still hurt though, so it'll be tough."

Dick focused and felt the familiar pain as he relaxed and started changing back. After he had changed back and put his clothes back on, he heard something that sounded like footsteps on the island. Rachel was on alert as well, listening to the footsteps. And then there was a loud crack and a flash in the distance.

Robin felt a force push is arm back. Immediately afterwards, he felt intense pain. He had been shot.

"Oh my gosh, Dick! You've been hit! Here, lie down. I can see the damage better that way." Rachel belted out.

Dick wasn't about to argue through the pain, so he laid down on the cold grass.

"You've definitely been shot. It looks like the bullet- my gosh- I think the bullet was _Aconit Napel bleu Nordic._ It's deadly, especially to you. I know a cure for the infection but we need to act fast."

Robin spoke French and _Nordic Blue Monkshood _translated in his mind. Nordic blue monkshood was a rare strain of wolfsbane.

"Abby, Nicole! Dick's been shot by a wolfsbane bullet. I'll bet money that the shooter was Kayla. Get him to the med-shed, stat. we're in the woods. I'm getting one of the bullets for the cure." Dick listened as Rachel spoke into her watch, apparently with a built in communicator. With that, Rachel ran off towards the shot on foot; firing guns at the shooter all the way. Dick waited for the other two bird-girls to arrive and take him to the med-shed, whatever that was. He didn't have to wait very long.

"Get up! We need to get you out of here, now. Get to the boat; we're taking you to the mainland." Abby commanded as she helped Robin up. They ran to the shore and climbed into the boat. Nicole pushed it into the water, but he didn't notice. What he _did _notice was that he was shifting. He could feel his eyes turn amber and back to blue; amber again then blue again. His whole body ached, his arm the most.

When they hit the mainland, Nicole helped him out of the boat and through the copse of trees to a clearing. In the middle of the small clearing was a smaller shed, large enough to take shelter in but not much else. Abby opened the door and flicked on the lights, revealing what looked like a medical lab. The single room had an examination table, a couple of chairs and several closed cupboards above a sink. It was basically a doctor's office. Nicole led Dick to one of the chairs and instructed him to try to calm down as much as possible. As Dick attempted to keep the shifting under control, he could only hope that Rachel would get here soon with whatever cure she had.

Rachel raced off towards the place where the shots had come from. She had to run on foot because, frankly, she enjoyed the fact that the werewolf hunter who pursued them didn't think they could have been birds.

When she saw Kayla holding up an assault rifle she took out one of her own guns and began firing. She didn't fire at Kayla; she was above that. Instead she fired at the gun, trying to block the chamber with her own rounds. When she had succeeded, Kayla noticed her and took off. Luckily, Rachel was much faster. The second she caught up with the hunter, she engaged in combat, quickly dispatching her opponent and knocking her unconscious. She looted her bag; looking for the deadly bullets and eventually found them in a wooden box. Taking two, she spread her wings and took off, heading for the woods on the mainland and the sky blue shed they concealed.


	7. Chapter 7

Dick felt like he was about to pass out by the time that Rachel burst in. He suddenly gasped. He could feel the wolfsbane she now held; like tingling of the mind. Shrugging off the sixth sense, he grabbed the bullet Rachel held out to him and asked "what the heck am I supposed to do with this?"

"Bite the tip off of it and tap it on the table until the crushed plants come out."

Getting up and doing as he was told, he sunk his molars into the bullet and broke off the tip. He tapped the bit on the silvery table and saw a purple and green coarse powder come out.

Rachel continued to explain. "Now scoop it into a pile and we'll burn it."

He did so and Nicole conjured up a lighter and lit the plants, watching indigo smoke rise from the charred flora; which didn't burn for very long.

"Scoop it into your hands and shove it into the bullet hole." Rachel demanded.

"_What?!"_ Robin was confused and shocked at the girl's words. Put wolfsbane into the bullet hole that only wouldn't heal _because _of wolfsbane? How would that work?

"I can't explain it; I just know it. Do it!"

Dick didn't argue; he took that pile of burnt plants and pressed it into the wound. He screamed as he was struck with white-hot pain.

Dick fell backwards onto the floor and kept screaming, this time howling as well. The bullet wound healed and raised veins sunk back to flat, pale skin. Dick got up and leaned on Abby's shoulder for support. His arm still ached but he could tolerate it.  
"How do you feel?" Rachel asked with concern in her voice.

"My arm still hurts," growled Dick.

Rachel didn't respond. She simply led the way out the door, back to the boat, and to the caves. She and Abby were about to leave him in his cave when he stopped the former.

"Rachel, can I talk to you?"

"Of course."

"I want the truth. Is there a cure for lycanthropy?"

"There are several dozen cures on the internet, but I doubt if they're true. And I haven't found any specifically for a half-wolf."

"Well, what cures are there?" There could be hope yet. While he could accept if there wasn't a real cure, he didn't relish the thought of being a wolf.

"Most of them involve throwing an iron knife above the head of the wolf. While Nicole is a knife-throwing _expert, _I doubt this cure because of the fact that it doesn't affect the body itself." Rachel was about to leave again but Robin kept talking.

"Rachel, I have to tell you something," He had to get this out of him, get some sort of instruction for this thing.

"What?"

"Earlier today, I prayed and accepted Jesus Christ as my…"he began. He couldn't get the next word out because Rachel had cried out and hugged him tightly.

"OHMYGOSH! I can't believe it, congratulations!" she screamed, causing Abby and Nicole to run down to see what was with all the commotion.

"Dick's a Christian now!" she beamed. Abby and Nicole smiled too and hugged him also. When they broke apart, all three were still smiling.  
"Oh my gosh, I think I'm about to cry!" Rachel exclaimed.

"You crying? Now that'd be a sight!" Dick countered.

"What, you don't think I cry?"

"Not really."

Abby spoke next, "Hey, we've been thinking of putting together a praise and worship band. Would you like to join it? You won't be paid, but it would be fun.

One thing that few people knew about Dick Grayson is that he had actually had plenty of experience with music. He was a decent baritone singer and he could play the drums very well. Even Bruce didn't know this, it just wasn't all that important.

"Could you use a baritone and a drummer?"

"_Especially _a baritone and a drummer."

"Then I'm in!"

A chorus of yes's went around the girls. They then explained that the band would perform covers only, unless he wanted to write songs as well.

"What is this band called anyway?" Dick asked.

"We don't have a name for it yet." Replied Abby.

"Okay. How about GIA? Short for God is awesome?"

"I love it!" shouted Rachel. The other girls seemed to agree.

And thus, GIA was born. Dick was the drummer and the backbone, providing rhythm. Rachel and Nicole were the guitarists, Rachel mainly playing electric guitar while Nicole specialized in acoustic. And Abby played the keyboard, tickling the ivories like a pro.

Dick went to sleep after all three girls left his cave.

_ I really think I'm going to like it with these girls, _he thought as he drifted into slumber.


	8. Chapter 8

Dick awoke the next morning to the sound of singing. It wasn't bad, quite pretty really, just different. He followed the noise until he found Rachel in the low branches of weeping willow, singing a song he had never heard before and playing it on an acoustic guitar (she could also play an acoustic guitar, it's the same as an electric).

The last chorus went like this:

_Let us go to the banks of the ocean_

_ Where the walls rise above the Zider Zee_

_ Long ago I used to be a young man_

_ And dear Margret remembers that for me_

"_Wow!_ Where'd you learn that?" Dick asked, announcing his presence.

"Oh, Dick. I didn't hear you coming." She responded. Robin smirked at his stealth.

"I knew you were good but not that good. What song is that?"

"It's the Dutchman by Steve Goodman."

Dick simply grunted. He'd have to look up that song when he got home. _If _he got home.

"Hey, It's time for training."

Now Dick looked at her with curiosity. He thought he had passed "training" when he shifted on will and changed back.

"What's more to learn? I shifted on my own, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but it's easy to get mad and calm down when there's nothing to keep you mad or keep your heart rate up. It's a completely different thing to keep the shift _in _when you're mad or exercising. This way, you can still fight crime without worrying about shifting."

"Alright."

"So we're going to the mainland for a run. Try to keep yourself under control. Let's get to the boat."

The two hiked to the inflatable boat and hopped in. Rachel pushed and then jumped inside just as the boat hit the water. She piloted the boat expertly towards the shore of the mainland, near a hill with some picnic tables and trees. They landed without a hitch.

"Oh, one more thing. We're going to race, or rather, you're going to chase me," She announced.

"That'll be easy. I'm a werewolf for crying out loud! I'll catch up in no time."

"Can you sprint at mach one?" Rachel asked, sarcastically. "I'll be flying while you'll be running."

Dick didn't respond. He simply jumped out of the boat and stretched out a little bit on the sand. Rachel did the same, stretching out her wings somewhat cautiously then confidently.

"Catch me if you can, Boy Wonder!" with that, she took a running start and flapped her wings, taking off into the early morning light.

Dick smirked and sprinted after her. They ran along the edge of the trees for about thirty minutes when Dick began to feel an all too familiar pang. He fell to the ground, grunting at the shifting pain.

Rachel immediately took a u-turn and flew back to Robin.

"Dick, you need to calm yourself down. Whatever you thought of to shift back; think of that while you're exercising or fighting. You won't shift," she cooed.

Dick thought of his parents and immediately felt the pain begin to ebb. He kept focusing even after the shift reversed, as he had been told. As they continued the chase, he was amazed to find that he never again felt the shift return, though the wolf side of his psyche seemed to grow at times even though he was human.

When Robin finally caught and tagged the bird-girl she said, "Keep working at that, and you'll have mastered it."

Dick shined with pride.

"Hey, would you be willing to participate in a tiny experiment?" Rachel inquired, mischief glittering in her gorgeous green eyes.

"What?" Dick asked skeptically.

"Dogs are allergic to chocolate, right? If they eat cocoa, they get really sick and could even die. I'm curious to know if you're allergic. I got some buttons from a selection box from Ireland and I would like to give you just a couple to see if you get sick, you won't die from them."

Dick thought for a moment before answering.

"Alright."

No sooner had he said it than Rachel took off into the gray morning sky. Dick had no choice but to wait for her return with the foreign goodies. When she did, Rachel was grinning. Opening the purple plastic bag, she handed him three small round chocolates. Dick took them and ate them, savoring the creamy flavor of Cadbury chocolate.

Unfortunately, this didn't last for very long.

Within a minute the boy felt sick and a minute after that, he was vomiting onto some nearby bushes.

"I guess I'm allergic to chocolate then. Unless of course, you spiked it." He said, voice hoarse with an aching throat.

"I didn't put anything in it. Nicole knows how to do that, but not me. Besides why would I ruin perfection like that?!"

Dick didn't respond. He simply coughed and drank the water that Rachel handed him. He hadn't asked for it, she simply got it for him.

"Dick?"

The boy grunted in response.

"Last night, when I went to my house to get the guitar, I went searching and found a cure."

Dick stopped drinking and looked right at Rachel. "Well, what is it?" he asked.

"The cure won't work on you. It's eating wolfsbane under the full moon."

"I can wait for a month," Dick exclaimed hopefully.

"Your _first _full moon."

The teen wolf slouched. His first moon had been two days ago. There was no hope of being human again. Not ever.

"Dick?" Rachel reached out and held Robin's hand gently. He looked at her with slightly tearing eyes.

"Do you want to go home? Because I think you're ready to go back home."


	9. Chapter 9

The boy nodded silently and got up.

"Let's get some lunch and then we'll go back to Gotham. It's a pretty long trip," She continued. They got back into the boat and sputtered away towards the island.

After a lunch of fried fish and mealworms, the girls and boy crawled into the dinghy and set out down the river to the open ocean. From there, they went up the Gotham River to the stretch of shore where the four first met. After saying goodbyes and trading contact information, they dropped Robin off.

"Keep the boat," Rachel said.

As he walked home from Gotham forest, Dick considered what he should tell Bruce. Should he just tell him the truth: that he was a monster and had had little training in these new skills? Or should he tell him a half truth; like he was sick, perhaps? Maybe he shouldn't tell him anything and keep any answers to Bruce's questions vague. When he came to the black iron gates of Wayne Manor he decided on telling him where he had gone but not about his condition. As he squeezed through the rails of the gates, he could only hope that Bruce wouldn't be too mad at him.

Bruce was in the Batcave, in front of the computers. There wasn't anything on the computers; he was just sitting in front of them, still distraught over his son's absence. _I hope he's okay. What happened to him and when will he come back? _These thoughts were heavy on the bat's mind. So much so that he didn't hear the light brushing of footsteps echo through the cavern.

"_Where _are _you?!"_ he suddenly bellowed to no one in particular.

"Try right here," came a familiar and welcome voice. Bruce turned to see the black haired boy standing on his left, smirking warmly at him.

Dick smirked kindly at Bruce. He had just showered and was happy to see his father figure's reaction to his return. Bruce smiled excitedly and hugged Robin close, before breaking away and holding by the shoulders. Tears were in his eyes.

"Where have you _been?_" Asked the Bat, trying to sound angry but his smile betrayed him.

"It's a long story," The Boy Wonder began warily, not sure how Bruce would react to the fact that he had left Rhode Island. He hoped that he wouldn't press for an answer.

"I've got all day." Bruce replied, pulling up a chair for the young hero. Said hope did not last for very long.

Robin sighed and sat down.

"I went to an island in the Susquehanna river."

"In Pennsylvania?" Bruce had raised an eyebrow at this.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was invited there."

"By who?"

"Just a few new friends." Dick broke eye contact here, trying to convey his discomfort.

"What are their names?"

Robin sighed again.

"Rachel, Abby, and Nicole."

"So you went to a strange island a few states south with three strange girls in, what, a boat?"

"Yeah. Rachel told me to keep the boat."

Bruce was quiet for a moment, digesting the information. Then he spoke.

"What happened? What did you do while you were…" He trailed off, not sure what to say next. "Away?"

"I just had some issues to work out. I'd rather not discuss it. Let's just move on. Please."

Again, Bruce was quiet as he mulled over whether he should press for more information or let it slide. He finally said "okay."

Robin swallowed before announcing "Also, I've had some big changes." He let his voice trail off to buy time for how to say it.

"What?" Bruce asked curiously, but also warily.

"For starters, um, I became a Christian."

Bruce raised both of his eyebrows but didn't say anything.

"Also, I've joined a praise and worship cover band. We call it GIA."

"As what part?"

"Drummer and Baritone singer."

"I didn't even know you could sing, let alone drum. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't that important at the time."

Bruce remained silent for what felt like an eternity. Deciding whether he should be punished for running away was one thing. But should he punish him simply for finding a religion? After a very long and very awkward silence, Bruce decided to let the latter slide.

"So you're a Christian now. I don't suppose there's anything I can do about it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Nothing at all," Dick replied.

"Okay then. Are you hungry? Or did these girls feed you?"

"They fed me but I wouldn't mind some food anyway."

Bruce walked with Dick up the stairs to the Mansion. As they strolled through the sliding bookcase Bruce called for Alfred and told him to make some dinner.

"Very well, Master Bruce," was the reply.

The two ate their meals in silence most of the time. Alfred had hastily prepared some chicken soup for the heroes. Then Bruce had questions.

"What did these girls feed you, anyway?"

"Mostly something called campfire stir-fry. It was cooked over an open fire."

"How was it?" Bruce was trying to get answers out of Robin while making it seem like small talk.

"It tasted pretty good, but it gets kind of ruined when you find out what's in it." Robin replied.

Bruce grunted. With an answer like that, he didn't want any more information. So he changed the subject.

"You do realize that I have to punish you for running away, right?" he started.

"Well I wouldn't call it 'running away.' But fair enough, I suppose. What's my punishment?"

"No crime-fighting for a week."

"Alright," End of conversation.

Dick went to bed without saying anything else to anyone, except for saying hello to Alfred on his way up. He went to sleep trying to think of how to explain his absence to the team and his classmates. He then went out like a light.


	10. Chapter 10

The month had passed fairly normally for everyone. He had slowly learned more about Rachel and the girls. Rachel was half Irish, hence the chocolate, Abby was Canadian and Nicole was American. While Abby and Rachel spoke Canadian French and Gaelic, respectively, all three spoke Sindarin Elvish and used that to have a private conversation. He also learned that the girls had an extreme sense of sight and that Rachel was nocturnal. Over time he also learned about himself as a werewolf. He discovered that he had a sixth sense whenever he was around Wolfsbane. He couldn't describe it; he just got a tingly feeling whenever it was nearby. But the most shocking revelation was the identity of the hunter who shot him.

Rachel was correct; the woman's first name _was _Kayla. Once Dick got a good look at her though, and caught her scent, he _knew _her last name. It was McLain. He knew this because Kayla was his English teacher at Gotham University! Now, everyday could be his last.

He was on his way out of the front gates at his school when he suddenly heard the whistle. It was high-pitched and loud as all get-out. Because he wasn't expecting it, he covered his ears and started staggering around. A dog whistle. That _must _have been what it was. As a few people helped to steady him the sound stopped and he stood up again, a little bit shocked.

"Are you okay? What happened?" asked the girl who held his left arm, concern plaguing her face.

"I-I don't know. I guess I just got some kind of headache," he lied.

"Headaches don't just happen that quickly. And they definitely don't go away like that," said the boy who stood on Dick's right. Dick simply shrugged and shook his head. After the two kids left Robin looked over at Mrs. McLain's classroom window. There she was, with a silver whistle in her fingers, and smirking right at him. Robin looked away and continued to walk towards the limousine Alfred was waiting in.

"Are you alright, Master Dick?" the British butler asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I must have had some head trauma after fighting last night. I think I'll be fine." He replied.

Alfred said nothing more and drove the Boy Wonder home.

After Dick finished his homework he got on Skype where Abby, Rachel, and Nicole were waiting for him.

"Hey, are you coming tonight?" Rachel chirped.

After checking to make sure no one was around Robin asked "Coming where?"

"It's a full moon tonight."

"I probably won't for that very reason." said Dick in a lowered voice even though he was alone.

"Don't worry. We're actually going there for the exact same reason. Any time we are hit by the light of the full moon, our minds become the minds of the bird that makes up forty percent of our DNA. I think it's because of some of the chemicals we used. Very reactive to high amounts of lunar energy." replied the Owl-girl.

"Alright. But how do I convince Batman to let me go?"

This time Abby spoke "Just tell him it's a full moon. Tell him it's a band thing and that he wouldn't understand."

"Okay. I'll try to be there."

Now came the challenge of inducing Bruce.

"Hey, Bruce. Can you handle one night without me?"

Bruce turned in his chair in the Batcave.

"Why?" he asked skeptically.

"Well, you see. The other Band members in GIA need me to be with them tonight. It's a full moon tonight and we try to beat it to bed. It's a band thing." Dick lied again.

Bruce was silent for a moment before saying "Who are the other band members?"

"Rachel, Abby, and Nicole." Dick swallowed, wanting to take back the truth and instead tell him he wasn't the only boy.

"So you want to stay the night, with three girls who I haven't even met yet?" Bruce remarked, a serious look on his facade.

"Trust me. It couldn't be that way, even if I tried." Robin raised his voice slightly, picking up on what the Dark Knight had implied. "Please?"

Batman sighed. "I suppose you could…"

"Thanks!" Dick threw over his shoulder as he dashed off, trying to avoid being asked where he was going.

When he got to the island Rachel was waiting for him on the sand. She pulled him in and nodded a hello to the young werewolf. Said werewolf nodded back.

After a little bit of training (this time it was sparring. This girl had some _serious _moves!) with Rachel and updating her on what he had found out, and what had happened at school, they had a delicious stir-fry dinner. They sang songs around the campfire and talked. Then they went straight to bed. Just then, Dick thought of something.

"Hey, Rachel, how do I keep myself from losing control tonight?"

"Try moving your mattress near the door, on the right side so that you won't be touched by moonlight. If you do change, just remember to take control sooner than later. It'll be more difficult, but it might work."

Doing as he was told, he moved his mattress to the corner on the right side of his cave opening. Laying down on it, he wondered how he was going to get home in time to get ready for school, and how to deal with it if Kayla confronted him about the dog whistle. He couldn't sleep so he went into the cave he had come through, Rachel called it the moon cave, to admire it some more. He went back to his cave and finally fell asleep just before moonrise. He slept soundly the whole night.

He awoke to Rachel shaking him awake.

"It's after sunrise. The moon hasn't set yet but you probably won't shift if you go out. It's enough so that we don't lose it," she said excitedly. A night owl _and _a morning person. Great.

"Alright, Alright. I'm up!" He got out of bed and ate breakfast with the girls, leaving the caves through a small passage that was just big enough for a child. Any adult would have to use the passage out through the pool and swim around the island. After a breakfast consisting of bannock, bugs, and mice, he left for home.

Bruce didn't ask where he went last night. There was no conversation around the table at breakfast. The silence was deafening.

Dick had just finished English class and was about to leave for his study hall when Mrs. McLain stopped him.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I was looking out the window at the end of the day when I saw you start to collapse. What happened?"

Robin listened to her heartbeat when she asked "What happened." It was beating much faster. She was lying.

"I don't know. It was just a head ache, though. I'm fine." He said, never once breaking eye contact. He didn't trust her one bit.

Kayla smirked, knowing full well what had _really _happened.

"Alright. Go to study hall." She said slyly. Robin left in silence, fuming. And the day had gone so well.


	11. Chapter 11

It had been about another two months after the unfortunate dog whistle incident and Robin was doing well. He had managed to convince Batman that his full moon campouts were a band antic and nothing more. His grades were high; as usual and he had nearly mastered the shift, although he still felt the pull of the full moon on his wolf side and he knew he couldn't be able to control himself should he change with it. By now, the girls were no longer strangers. They had met Bruce and Alfred weeks ago when the band filmed its first cover: _Forever Reign _by Hillsong.

He had just gotten home and finished his homework when Alfred entered the room.

"Master Grayson, may I have a chat?"

Richard gulped. Alfred only called him by his last name when he was being serious. At least it wasn't his full name.

"Sure, Alfie. What's up?" he asked nervously.

"Master Dick, you seem to have been acting strange lately. Your leaving on full moon nights with those three girls has me concerned."

"I told you this before. It's just a teenager antic."

"You also seem to get very on edge in the days leading up to these nights. Additionally, do you remember two months back when you got a headache on your way from school?"

Robin nodded. He prayed that he wouldn't be found out. He couldn't lie to Alfred. He knows him too well.

The Englishman continued, "A headache doesn't surface or subside in the space of ten seconds. That was closer to the reaction a dog would have to a dog whistle. I suppose I'll cut to the chase. Are you a werewolf?"

Robin mentally panicked. He didn't want Bruce to know about this. Even though Bruce knew he was responsible enough to keep himself under control in combat and he had almost mastered his lycanthropy, he simply wasn't ready to tell him. He didn't know why he was so scared. What did he think would happen? Would Bruce try to mate him with another wolf? Keep him in a cage at night and on full moons? Maybe make him quit being Robin?

"Richard," The butler snapped him out of his thoughts. "_Are you?_"

Dick sighed. "Yes. I am."

Alfred was quiet for some time before he said "And I take it that you are in control of this recent development?"

Richard said nothing but simply nodded again.

"What about Rachel, Abby, and Nicole? Did you bite them? Are they your pack?"

"I didn't bite them. I won't put anyone through this. _Ever._ They'll kill me if I tell you but they're part bird. They have wings and can fly at at least mach one."

Again, deafening silence. Then Alfred asked "Would you mind changing for me?"

Richard was taken aback by the older man's words but obliged. He silently stood up and took off his jacket and shoes, both of which would stay on if he shifted in them and make the change uncomfortable. He breathed deeply and began the change. First his vision shifted, and then he dropped to his hands and feet. Fur started to grow everywhere while the hair on his head shortened and lightened to gunmetal gray. He groaned as his fangs grew in and he opened his mouth to reveal them. Shoulders and spine crunched and slipped upwards as everything else changed. His clothes vanished as fur engulfed his body.

When he was done with the change he looked at Alfred; who looked back at him with his expression unreadable. His hands were pressed with the palms together in front of his lips with the elbows resting on his knees.

"I assume that Master Bruce knows nothing of this?" Asked the Butler.

"No," replied Robin when he was done changing back.

"Are you ever going to tell him?"

Richard considered for a minute. "Yes. But not now. Maybe not anytime soon. I want to be sure I can prove that I can control it completely before I tell him."

"Very well. I will keep this between us."

"Thanks Alfred," Dick smiled as the butler left the room in silence.

Then Dick thought. He hoped that the girls would be okay with Alfred knowing about them. He also hoped that he wouldn't treat them like birds. Alfred would keep the birdness to himself-Dick knew this for sure-but he hoped that Alfred wouldn't try to give them extra food just because of their metabolisms. In the end, he decided to play some video games to get his mind off of things and to distract him from the fatigue of shifting.

The remainder of the night passed normally. Dinner, patrol, a couple of fights, and then he went to bed. He fell asleep thinking of how he might tell Bruce about lycanthropy. Or if he would tell anyone else at all. Eventually, he passed out and slept peacefully to the three heartbeats in the huge mansion.


	12. Chapter 12

May. Five months after he learned of his affliction. He was alone in Mount Justice with his best friend Wally. They were sparring against each other and Robin was winning for the fifteenth match in a row. That was when it happened.

Robin had grabbed Kid Flash and threw him several feet away from him, using a move Rachel had shown him. Oh, he knew she knew more than what she taught him. She had used pressure points when Kayla attacked them in close quarters and she couldn't use her guns. But now Robin had used his reserves of wolf-strength which were far too strong to be passed off as human, even with as much training as he had had. He froze in panic as he knew Wally had noticed and he would have to explain.

"Whoa!" Wally exclaimed as he got up off the floor. "Where did you learn that? And have you been working out? That was seriously…" he cut off as he noticed the shocked and slightly panicked look on his friend's face. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

In a moment he was at the 14-year-old's side, who was avoiding his gaze.

"Rob, what happened? That's way too strong even for you."

No response. Dick simply turned head away slightly to avoid the ginger's eyes.

In a lower voice Wally added, "Whatever it is, you can tell me about it. Please."

Robin sighed, and then said, "Do you promise to keep it a secret?"

"Yeah."

"I'm serious. Even Batman can't know about this."

Wally raised an eyebrow but agreed.

Sighing again, Dick announced, "I'm a werewolf."

Wally's eyes widened. He was very scientific so "werewolf" didn't fully register at first. But then his mind began to work again. Sort of.

"What?" he asked in a dazed tone.

"A werewolf, Wally. I am a werewolf," Dick replied, annoyance lacing his words.

"H-how? When?" Wally stammered out.

After yet another heavy sigh Robin answered, "Apparently I was born this way. Half werewolf, half human. It started on my birthday last year."

"And you _haven't _told Bats?"

"No."

"When will you tell the rest of the team?"

"I don't know. I just don't feel ready."

"Well, c-can you control yourself? In a fight, I mean."

"Yeah. Rachel taught me." By now, Robin had brought the three bird-girls to the cave and, though they were a separate team and not part of _the _team, worked as back-up and a rescue team at times.

"What about full moons?" Asked the speedster with a slightly darker sounding voice.

"N-no. I can't." responded the black haired boy truthfully. Even though he had occasionally successfully attempted to keep the shift away, he couldn't do it under the full gleam of the moon and it always hurt like crazy.

The conversation ended with that. Words were no longer needed. Wally could keep it a secret and would remain friends with Dick, though the thought that he was now a wolf made him uneasy at first.

"Well, do you want to spar some more? A-as a wolf?" asked the speedster.

Robin smirked and took off his cape, gloves, boots, mask and utility belt. He found out quite a while ago that he couldn't shift in these clothes.

When he was done shifting, he and Wally began their sparring match. Dick quickly gained the upper hand over Kid Flash's speed with his own. The redhead was easily pinned to the floor by the wolf's massive weight. Wally could swear that the boy smiled at him and panted happily. Then the wolf howled with his gunmetal gray head to the ceiling.

Aisling walked in at that moment to see what was going on. Aisling was fairly new in some ways and an old team member in others. She knew about Robin's condition even without being told. The pure-white-skinned girl with knee length white hair and glimmering green eyes smiled playfully at them and Dick thought back to when he first learned the secret of the fairy girl.

It was the first day that he invited the girls to the cave and introduce them to the team. It was supposed to be an introduction and a "tour" (read "kid-napping") and nothing more. But things started to get weird when Wolf began to act up. The white wolf wouldn't leave Rachel alone. Everyone was shocked when the new girl didn't crumble under the weight of a drug-enhanced wolf on her shoulders but no one questioned it. After several hours of Wolf pestering the brown haired girl, said girl put her hand on Wolf's head and shouted "Briseadh an litrithe!"(Gaelic for "Break the spell!")

It was then that the white wolf disappeared in a flash of white light and when the flash wore off, all that was left standing was a perfectly normal, much smaller, white wolf. The moment said wolf was back to normal it began to shimmer again. The light ended and the form that was left stood up and immediately hugged Rachel as tightly as possible. What appeared to be a slightly short white girl with white hair was rambling off excitedly in an unknown language, still clinging to Rachel and holding her wings, which were hidden to the rest of the team under her usual gray jacket.

"Sorry Guys," Said Rachel. "This is Aisling. She's a fairy from Kells, Ireland. We know each other and she's obviously pretty friendly."

"Aren't fairies supposed to have wings?" asked Kid Flash.

"No. Pixies have wings but fairies don't." replied the Brunette.

"If Wolf was a fairy then why didn't he change back sooner?" asked the slightly ticked off Superboy.  
"A. Aisling is a girl. I'm guessing you didn't check? B. there's a legend that tells that if a magical being- this time being a fairy- is taken over and physically changed by something scientific-this time being steroids- then the being cannot change from whatever form they are in; provided they have any other form at all." Now Rachel was slightly ticked off. Robin guessed that she was getting a little on the defensive side because of the way Superboy had talked to her. "This spell can be broken if an Irish man or woman touches them and speaks the Gaelic words for 'break the spell'," she continued.

Aisling and Rachel talked for the rest of the mission. As it turned out, Aisling only spoke Gaelic, so Rachel acted as the translator. In the end, Aisling chose to stay at the cave with the team instead of returning to her apparently decimated forest in Kells.

Robin didn't' find out until afterwards when he was at home on Skype that among the Gaelic chatter Aisling had asked about him. Rachel said that Aisling asked if her hunch was correct that he was a werewolf and that Rachel simply couldn't lie to the mythical creature. She had reassured that, as long as Aisling couldn't speak English, his secret was completely safe and that Aisling had sworn to secrecy anyways.

"Are you going to get off me now?" asked the ginger speedster. Robin had completely forgotten about him. He got up and changed back, helping Wally up after he had done so. Over all, it had turned out to be a pretty good day. Nothing apocalyptic had happened and after a relatively peaceful night, Dick went to bed.

It had been a month after Wally knew Dick's secret. It had been a peaceful night and Dick was trying to sleep in his room. But he was wide awake and couldn't shut his eyes for anything. Then he heard a noise outside his window. It was a rustling and a heartbeat Robin hadn't noticed before. He got up to look and, for a split second, he thought he saw a hunter. He quickly ducked below his window sill before peeking up again. He definitely saw Kayla, talking into a cell phone. He listened into the conversation.

"No, I'm at home," she said. "I'm alright, just tired."

"We both know that's not true," came a man's voice on the other end.

"Ugh, fine. I'm staking out a werewolf's house."

"Who's the wolf?"

"One of my former students. Don't worry about the code! I haven't so much as touched him."

So there were two hunters, maybe more! Robin couldn't help but worry. Then he remembered what Kayla said. _The code._ He guessed that meant that they didn't attack kids, at least. Maybe she was trying to gradually leave the hunting group in order to kill him when she was no longer bound by the code, but still have the others as allies? One thing was for sure: she would do _anything _to get to him. She would be more than willing to kill Bruce or Alfred to threaten him. So he had to make sure that would never happen. If she stalked him during the night; he would simply have to stop sleeping.


	13. Chapter 13

Robin wasn't tired anymore. He hadn't slept for a straight 113 hours. It was his fifth day without sleep and all signals for the thing had been long cut off. He and Wally were alone at Mount Justice again, this time in street clothes, sparring. Robin had just beaten Kid Flash _again_ when the Dark Knight walked in, but neither of them noticed the _Batman zero-one _that the computer had chimed.

"And you _didn't _use your powers?" the redhead asked, astonished.

"Nope." replied the black-haired boy, a cheeky smile playing has face.

"What powers?" Bruce cut in.

The two boys, even Robin, nearly jumped a mile high. Then Robin turned to Wally and said "Run!" The two boys took off at a supernatural pace. Batman narrowed his eyes. That speed was normal for Wally but far too fast for the young acrobat. Batman gave chase.

The boys were down a straight corridor when robin turned his head and asked "Why are you going so slow?"

"Because I want you to keep up!" countered the scarlet speedster.

"Forget me. Just go, _go!_ And meet me at the edge of the woods."

Wally sped off towards the exit. Robin heard marbles rolling across the floor up ahead. When he reached the crossway of the two halls he leaped over the marbles and hit the ground running, this time on all fours, and sped off at top speed to meet up with Wally at the edge of the woods that surrounded one side of Mount Justice.

When he got to the edge of the trees, he leaned over his knees and tried to catch his breath. They had lost Batman, at least for now.

"Come on," Dick panted. Then they walked into the woods before ending up in between some trees.

"What do you hear? Is he coming?" Wally demanded. Robin listened and heard four heartbeats: his, Wally's, Batman's, and Kayla's as he caught her scent of school and gun powder.

"Yeah. He's coming." Robin paused in thought for a moment, and then told Wally to start climbing one of the trees.

"Why?"

"Look, if Batman has to figure this out and finds both of us, we'll both get in trouble. If he figures it out and only finds me, you'll be fine. In order to avoid both of those, I'm going to tell him but you need to climb that tree so you won't be caught. Stay in the leaves so he won't see you."

As the speedster began climbing the tree's lower branches, Dick began to pull off his jacket, shoes, socks, shirt, communicator, and a necklace with a tooth on it.

"Dude! Where'd you get that?"

"Rachel gave it to me," Replied the werewolf as he thought back to the day he was returning home from the island on his second full moon.

"I want you to have this," Rachel had said as she presented him with a brown leather necklace. It had two black beads on it about an inch away from where the wire pendant was. Expertly held on by the wire was a single, long, canine tooth.

"Whose tooth is it?" Robin asked as he put it on and looked at the slightly yellowed fang.

"It's one of Peter's," she replied, referring to the trained mountain lion that resided on the island. "I made it myself," she added, answering the unasked question.

"You're really good at jewelry making," Robin had complimented.

"Yeah. Although, now I'm getting more into makeup effects. That started a while ago and it's the longest kick I've ever been on."

Dick smiled as he pulled the necklace over his head and put it with the rest of his clothes.

"Dude!" Dick looked up in alarm, and then collected himself.

"Oh, uh. What?"

"I said 'are you okay?' you look a lot paler than usual."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping." He fought to not snap at the speedster. After all, tomorrow night was a full moon. And he always got a little more edgy just before the moon.

"Why not?!" the speedster asked with concern plaguing his voice.

Dick didn't answer. He simply concentrated as he began to shift, timing when Bruce might arrive at the same time. When he was finished he hid behind some bushes to wait for his mentor's coming. Sure enough, two minutes later, Robin heard some familiar panting.

With one last look around to make sure Kayla wasn't near enough to see him, he made a very risky move.

He stepped out of the bushes.

Immediately the Dark Knight turned around to face the unfamiliar-and-yet-familiar dark gray wolf. He pulled out some bat-a-rangs and got ready to throw them. The wolf stopped dead in his tracks and looked Bruce in the eye as best he could, seeing as Batman had his cowl on.

Bruce seemed conflicted. On the one hand, this was a wolf in a place where they simply didn't have wolves. It could potentially be dangerous. But on the other hand, Bruce's gut told him to trust this wolf. Bruce chose to go with the latter. He put the bat-a-rangs back on his belt. The wolf simply narrowed its eyes. He then took off his utility belt and threw it away, holding his hands up after that. This time, the wolf took a few steps forward; and then charged at him, pinning him to the tree that his back was facing.

"Oof," grunted Batman as he sized up his possible opponent. But then the most amazing thing happened.

The wolf dropped one paw and simply looked him in the eyes as he – wait- _paw? _It was no longer paw-like. Now its fingers were elongating and what had been claws now shortened and spread out into finger nails. The same was happening with the other hand as well. Batman watched in awe as the once-wolf's features began to become more human-like.

But it was when the fur finally faded out and a young person was left standing there that he found something more shocking than the wolf's transformation. No, it wasn't just the black-haired boy who stood there; it was the very condition of his son.

Dick looked extremely pale. He was naturally pale as a result of his long nights but this was far too pale to be healthy. The next thing Batman noticed was Dick's eyes. Or rather, the large bags underneath them; complete with dark circles in the inner corners and stretching down his lower lids. His normally dark blue eyes lost that spark as they went from amber in color to normal. Even the rest of Dick's shirtless frame seemed exhausted, as if he could collapse at any moment. It was perfectly healthy, aside from the paleness, but it seemed as if he might start trembling. Batman hoped it was just the change that had strained him and that he wasn't infected with some sickness.

Dick swallowed and then said "Bruce. I…" he cut off and turned around in worry.

"Bruce you need to climb up that tree. _NOW!_" he demanded.

"What?" Bruce muttered under his breath, coming out of the shock he had been in.

Now, Robin snapped. "_JUST DO IT!" _ he shouted; yes, _shouted, _at his mentor.

Batman didn't argue but climbed up the tree that he now shared with Wally.

"Wally, keep him quiet; keep him up there until it's safe. No one can know you're up there."

He hid his pile of clothes in the same bushes he had been hiding in and stood waiting. About two or three minutes later, he got what he was waiting for.

From Bruce's spot in the tree next to Wally he could see everything, although he was hidden. He watched as a woman with lightish brown hair stood in front of Robin, holding an electric cane. He listened to their conversation.

"Hello Dick, or should I say 'Robin'?" she began, sarcasm dripping from her lips.

"How did you find out?" Robin spat back menacingly. Bruce was startled. He had never heard him talk this way. He recognized the woman but couldn't place why she looked so familiar.

"Come on, you live with the richest person in Gotham and we have a resident hero who would be very expensive to be. He gets a sidekick who is the same age as you and has black hair, it wasn't that hard." With this, she thrust the cane at Dick, who dodged it almost expertly. Batman could tell he was struggling to fight his apparent fatigue. He wanted to jump down and help him but he knew Dick had put him up there for a reason.

Batman and Wally watched the fight continue from their place in the trees. Robin managed to evade the woman most of the time. He looked sloppy, though. As if he was beginning to give in to the exhaustion but refused to give up without a decent fight. Batman winced as Robin had just failed to land a lazy punch on the woman and, as a result, got about one million volts shot through his back while he screamed in agony. He dropped to the ground, shivering while the woman talked over him and said some pretty nasty stuff, all the while letting the cane in her hand arch electricity around his head and watching his hair frizz with the static.

Robin screeched angrily as he charged at her, managing to land a few strong punches. But these were not effective enough to seriously hurt her and make her stop. She shocked Robin again, this time in his left side. She had burned him where she had touched the black cane to his ghostly skin. He slid down a nearby tree and sat there, trying to block out the pain and to not pass out, while she knelt down next to him. She whispered in his ear and stood up again. He said something back though batman couldn't tell what it was, but he was sure his voice trembled with rage. The woman simply laughed and pulled out a handgun, aiming at his shoulder. Batman shut his eyes tightly. He didn't want to look at this anymore. He heard the gunshot and a sharp hiss. When he opened his eyes again Robin was leaning against the tree, blood oozing out of a wound near his left armpit. Robin's eyes were closed. His body just couldn't take the abuse anymore. He had passed out. The woman sneered and turned to leave. That was when Rachel appeared. He looked in the surrounding trees and thought he saw flashes of brown and black. It must've been Nicole and Abby, hiding in the trees.

Rachel looked at Robin and screeched "_MURDERER!"_ at the woman. She huffed and aimed her gun at the young girl. Impressively fast, Rachel attacked her and landed several punches and kicks on her, expertly staying behind her assailant. Rachel may not fight completely honorably, but she knew what she was doing. She pinned the woman to a tree and leaned in as if to whisper in her ear. She then screeched inhumanly, like a nazgul. The woman screamed in pain and Rachel let her go, letting the stranger run away. She looked at Robin again and then turned to the tree where Batman and Wally were hiding.

As Abby and Nicole dropped out of the trees, Rachel said "It's okay. You can come down now. It's safe."

Dick slid down the tree. He couldn't bear the pain anymore. He breathed heavy in order to not pass out. He looked Kayla right in the eyes. She knelt down right next to him and whispered in his ear.

"I won't kill you," she began.

"Still bound by the code?" he retorted, his voice trembling. Half with pain; and half with rage.

Kayla chuckled. "No. I'm not going to kill you because I'm going to come for them. I'm going to make them bleed. And I'm going to make you watch every second of it. And when you're crying over the bodies, _then _I'm going to _slaughter_ you."

Dick knew she meant his feathered friends. He learned long ago that she thought they were also werewolves.

"You know I won't let you do that. You know I'll fight for them until my last breath," he said, near tears and also feeling the tendrils of fatigue creeping over him. Even though he hadn't been tired before, the shift and the fight had been the final nail in the coffin. Kayla chuckled again. She pulled out a hand gun and aimed it at Robin while he took notice of a few birds in a tree. They were a barn owl, a red-tailed hawk, and an osprey. The girls were coming. Robin looked Kayla in the eyes but squeezed them shut and winced when the trigger was pulled and the gun went off. He felt a pain in his left arm but was too dizzy to really take notice. His vision went blurrier and blurrier and his eyelids felt like they weighed twenty tons each. He finally slipped into unconsciousness.

Rachel, Abby, and Nicole had been hanging out in the air coming off the ocean. Mount Justice had a pretty good location. It had some woods on one side, a beach on the other, as well as general grass that was awesome to run in and have campouts and play sports.

The three were pulling off a maneuver they called the Fahrenheit-a straight incline or a few hundred feet and then a free fall until you catch yourself- when all three of them heard robin scream in the woods. Rachel listened carefully for his heartbeat. It was going a mile a minute but she didn't hear the usual bone crunches of shifting. She realized that his heart was still pounding but it was getting slower and his raspy breathing was too. She signaled to the others to land and told them to fly as fast as they could into the forest and to stay hidden. Now that she focused, she could hear Kayla's heartbeat too. At least, she thought it was Kayla.

Rachel began to run into the woods to confront the hunter who had undoubtedly shot her friend. She was sure because she also heard the gunshot. Kayla's guns weren't silenced like her's were.

When she had reached Kayla she looked at Dick, unconscious against a tree with a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Despite knowing the condition of her friend, she thought it would bring about more dramatic effect if she might have made Kayla think she had killed him.

"Murderer!" she screeched. With that, and a slight huff from Kayla, Rachel waited for the hunter to pull her weapon. When she did, Rachel charged at her, dipping into her super speed as given by the strength of her owl. Landing numerous hard punches and kicks, Rachel managed to pin her to a tree by the shoulder. She leaned into her ear like she was about to tell a secret. What she gave was no secret of hers. Rachel let out an inhuman screech that was at such a high pitch, it would have shaken the mountain if it was loud enough. When her lungs began to change; all those months ago, so did her vocal cords. They sounded normal enough when speaking but her human scream had mixed with a barn owl's screech, causing a wraith-like sound. As Kayla added her own pained cry, Rachel let her go.

She looked at Robin once more. He had taken off his shirt; he'd probably shifted into his wolf form. She noticed he was incredibly pale and she saw the bags and dark circles under his closed eyes. As Abby and Nicole slipped from their hiding places in the trees, Rachel turned to Batman and Wally whose heartbeats she had also heard. "It's okay. You can come down now. It's safe." She called.


	14. Chapter 14

Rachel walked over to Robin. She looked him over and, summoning all the skills she had picked up while caring for horses, she made her diagnosis.

"It's not lethal," she declared, prompting a relieved sigh from Wally and Batman. The Dark Knight had never shown this much emotion before. He was visibly concerned for his son.

"Not so fast. The _bullet _isn't lethal. But since it looks like he hasn't slept in a week, it still could be very dangerous. Plus, the bullet seems to be a little too close for comfort to some nerve endings. If that sucker goes in any farther, he could get some serious nerve damage since it's still hot." She looked up at Batman, a silent _I'm sorry, _and then continued.

"We've set up med-sheds for situation like these. Kid Flash, I want you to go on ahead. The nearest shed is near the edge of these woods, but it's still hidden. Find it, then get inside and do these things in that order," she demanded, handing him a list and shooing him off. "Batman, pick him up. Try not to touch the blood; that could turn you into a werewolf too. I need you to get him to the med-shed. It's blue; robin has a locater there so follow that. We're going to get there ourselves; I'm going to remove the bullet."

Batman didn't argue. As the girls vanished he picked Robin up and synced his computer glove with Dick's. He then followed the marker as fast as he could to save his son's life.

When he got to the blue shed, he didn't expect to see much when he went inside. What he did see was plenty impressive. The inside of the shed was very spacious. There were several plastic chairs along one wall with several labeled cupboards and drawers along with a sink. There was a standard medical needle disposal container on the wall. A window was cut into the wall, though it had an oddly colored curtain on it. A single light source hung from the ceiling in the form of a naked bulb which shined onto the examination table in the middle of the room. Bruce laid Dick onto the table and Rachel examined him further.

"I don't think it's spiked. We need to sedate him, now." She began to walk towards one of the cupboards to grab a needle and a small bottle of clear fluid. She inserted the needle and carefully drew out some of the liquid.

"Do we really need to sedate him? He looks pretty out of it," he asked as he let his hand glide towards Richard's uninjured hand. He held it for a moment and then squeezed it, trying to see if his ward would open his eyes.

"Yes. He's not totally unconscious. Part of him is still awake, trying to sense for danger. If he feels pain, then he could wake up which could push in the bullet farther and damage those nerves."

Batman suddenly felt a slight squeeze on his fingers. He looked down to see that Rachel had been right. Part of him _was _still conscious. That's why he squeezed back. Rachel walked over with her needle and stuck it into Robin's shoulder. He went slack and the squeeze promptly loosened, causing Bruce to squeeze even tighter. He fought back tears as he prayed to a God he wasn't even sure he believed in that Dick would be okay. He sat in one of the chairs and dropped his head so he wouldn't have to watch Rachel do the operation.


	15. Chapter 15

Rachel stuck the needle full of sedatives into Robin's good arm. She had filled it with enough sedatives to keep a pit bull down for over a day. However, knowing Robin and a werewolf metabolism, she only had a few hours to painstakingly search for the bullet and pull it out without touching his nerve endings. Looking closer, she noticed that he had had some muscle damage too. Great. The bullet wound would be gone by tomorrow but muscle damage took about a week even with his healing factor. Just great.

Picking Robin up, she first placed ice packs on his burnt back and side. She wrapped ace bandages over the packs to keep them there if he moved. She then placed him back down and picked up her sanitized tweezers.

Digging into the hole, she concentrated on finding the bullet. She pushed muscles and nerve cell axons out of the way, careful not to cause even more damage. Finally finding the bullet, she grasped it and slowly drew it out. When the lump of metal was free from his skin she rinsed it with a bleach solution, they took no chances of turning someone else. She inspected it in her palm to make sure it wasn't silver or laced with aconite. Satisfied that it was safe, she tossed it into the trash can with a little clink. Robin hadn't so much as winced throughout the whole operation, even though it took only fifteen minutes. Rachel finally wrapped gauze and more bandages around his shoulder to stop the bleeding, and then addressed everyone else.

"He'll be fine," she said. "But we can't carry him out. He has some muscle damage and holding him in an awkward position could force some muscle fibers to heal in the wrong places. We can only wait for him to wake up. Someone should watch him."

"I'll watch him," the Batman piped up.

"Okay. The rest of us will keep watch outside and make sure Kayla doesn't come back for him," with that, the others left.

Once outside, Rachel and the other two girls took off their jackets and opened their wings.

"Tell anyone, and we will hunt you down," Nicole said to Wally, who looked somewhere between amazed and terrified.

Rachel and Nicole flew off in opposite directions while Abby stayed on the ground with Kid Flash. She was the fastest out of the three and, along with the ginger, could easily chase after Kayla no matter what vehicle she was in.

"So, wings," the speedster began clumsily.

"Yep," Abby replied, keeping a hypersensitive ear out for Kayla's heartbeat.

"Is that why you and Blood have such a close relationship? Because you're both birds?"

"Not just that, I share DNA with Blood. That's why I have a hawk's skills. If you want to know more then you should talk to Rachel. She's the one that put together the formulas and stuff."

Wally was silent for some time, and then asked "Did it hurt? To change?"

"Oh yeah, it hurt like crazy. Do you even really need to ask? If you were growing fifteen foot wings out of your back wouldn't you expect it to hurt?"

Wally didn't respond. But he did ask more questions, seeing as how Rachel was nowhere in sight.

"Don't you molt?"

And Abby answered them all with as much of her astounding patience as she could muster. She was sweet on the outside but she was like a reverse warhead. Sweet until you wear her down and her sass takes over. Bless her heart.

Batman didn't know how long he had been sitting in the room. He only knew the sadness. He had moved so that he couldn't see robin's face, which Rachel had pushed to his right side in order to operate. It had probably been a couple of hours because he could see the light fading from behind the window curtain.

Finally, Robin woke up. His eyes fluttered open silently for a second to see the light above his head, before closing again. Then, as realization dawned on him, he jolted awake and bolted into a sitting position, turning so his back was to Bruce, his head was spinning from the sudden change of position what he assumed were drugs. He grasped his head and breathed deeply, trying to lower his elevated heart rate.

He suddenly felt a warm and welcome hand on his shoulder.

"How are you feeling?" Bruce asked.

"My head is spinning," he replied drowsily. "But that'll…have to… wait." He was stuttering because he was so exhausted and engulfed in a dull pain.

He began unwinding the bandages from his side, revealing flawless, scarless, burn-free skin; and then continued to talk.

"Rachel…and the girls are in trouble. The…hunter… she threatened them. I won't…just let them… die," He tried his shoulder, moving it and then wincing, so he left the bandages on.

"I…have to…warn them," he said as he attempted to slide off the table. But as he did so, the moment his feet touched the floor they couldn't support him anymore and he almost fell to the ground, if Bruce hadn't caught him.

"No, they're fine. Rachel fought off the woman single handedly. Just sleep for now." He comforted, laying Dick back on the table.

Looking down, he noticed a pillow and a soft-looking blanket beneath the table.

"Do you want a…" Bruce cut off, seeing his son was already out like a light. He smiled to himself and placed the pillow under Robin's head and pulled the blanket over his body. Even Dick seemed to smile in his sleep at the comfort. Then Batman sat back down. He'd let robin sleep for as long as he needed to; and then he would bring him home to talk.


	16. Chapter 16

Robin slept soundly for another few hours until he woke naturally at around nine o'clock. He sat up on the table and observed Rachel and Bruce in the room. Rachel was leaning back on the counter while Bruce was sitting in a chair. Both seemed relieved that he had woken up. He changed into his clothes which sat neatly beside him, wincing when he moved his arm.

"Hey," Rachel began. "It looks like you'll be alright. You have some muscle damage though, that'll take longer to heal. You can take the bandage off tomorrow before bed and then just rest that arm until you think it's healed. Luckily the bullet didn't damage any nerves or break bones. God's watching out for you."

Dick smiled warmly but didn't respond. Bruce looked at him.

"Come on, let's go home." Robin leaned on Bruce's shoulder for support. They walked for a while until they were back at the mountain. Bruce had taken the Batmobile so he put Robin in the passenger seat and drove towards Gotham. After about five minutes, Robin was passed out in the seat. Bruce guessed the drugs might have still been affecting him.

When the two got home, Batman parked the car in a hidden place and woke Dick up.

"Do you know a way to get to your room without using the front door?" he asked. "I don't feel like dealing with Alfred right now."

Robin nodded groggily and replied "Yeah. Follow me."

Robin led Bruce to the tree that grew near his window. They climbed up, though the Dark Knight occasionally had to help his ward due to his bad shoulder. When they reached the branch that Dick had used six months ago to escape the manor, Dick turned to face his father figure.

"Just wait for my signal before you come in," and he ran down the branch and leaped onto the section of roof in front of his window. He climbed in and turned on the lights. After a few agonizing minutes, Robin stood in the window and waved to Bruce, telling him to come inside. Bruce ran down the length of the branch and leapt when he knew it wouldn't hold his weight. He landed just short of Robin's jump, prompting the Boy Wonder to come and help him.

Once inside the room, Batman noticed that his partner had changed clothes. He had gone from the clothes he had been wearing that day to a tank top and sweatpants. He sat on the bed and leaned against his pillow while the Dark Knight pulled out the swivel chair that was next to his bed and straddled it.

"Well, what do you want to know?" Dick asked. Batman sighed.


	17. Chapter 17

"Let's start with the basics. What in the heck happened out there? Since when can you do that?" the Dark Knight replied.

"What, jump from a tree to a roof? You've seen me do that before," Robin, out of reflex, dodged the question.

"You know what I mean."

Robin sighed and forced himself to tell the truth. "I'm a werewolf now. Apparently I was born like this. I'm half bred, so I'm still part human. According to Rachel, that's why I changed so early."

"This has never been a problem before."

"It still isn't a problem. I'm in control; most of the time. Most pure bred wolves come of age around eighteen. I first changed the day after my fourteenth birthday."

Now it was Bruce's turn to sigh, as he pulled off his cowl to see Dick a little better.

"How long have you been a…werewolf?"

"Six months."

"_Six months _and you didn't even think of telling me?! Why?"

"I was scared. I don't know why, exactly. I just didn't know how you would take it. If I told you immediately then it would have been worse. Imagine me coming home and saying 'Guess what? I'm a predator who could kill on a full moon night and I've had next to no training whatsoever.' That would have gone over well."

Batman was speechless at his son's bitterness. Sure he _sounded _sarcastic, but really it sounded more like he was furious at himself. So he changed the subject.

"You said you were in control most of the time. When aren't you? Can I trust you to fight without changing?"

"The only time I'm not in control is under the full moon. I can keep it in sometimes, but only in partial moonlight and even then it feels like I'm on fire. I can only try to control myself in wolf form."

"Who else have you told?"

"Well, Rachel, Abby, and Nicole know; obviously. Alfred knows, and Kid Flash."

"What's with those girls anyway? I doubt that they're totally normal."

"They're part bird. That's why their codenames are Owl, Hawk, and Osprey. Those are they're breeds of bird. They can fly at mach one, at least!"

"Where do you go when you go out on those full moon things? Who _really _comes?"

"The same island as where I went when I disappeared. Remember that? As for who comes along, I told you the truth. The girls have a reaction to the full moon, similar to mine. Their minds become the minds of the birds whose DNA they share. Pure instinct."

Batman was silent for a long time. Then he said "Do you like being… the way you are?"

Without hesitation, Dick said "No."

"Why not?!" Bruce was utterly shocked.

"Because it's such a burden," was the simple answer.

"You can hear for miles and run at supernatural speeds. Yeah, my heart _bleeds!_" fury laced the words of the Dark Knight. This was no burden.

"Yeah, I can hear anything. That includes dog whistles. Do you have any _idea _how much pain that is? And I can run super fast, which would be cooler if I wasn't _running for my life_!" Now Dick was getting defensive. Bruce held up his hands in an "I surrender" position. Dick looked away angrily and shuddered. Batman guessed the change happened when he was angry. After a few deep breaths, Dick looked like he had calmed down. Bruce looked over at Dick's alarm clock. It was 11:39. He glanced down at Dick, who continued to breathe deeply. Asleep. Of course. He woke him, and told him to get some sleep but that the conversation would continue tomorrow.

"Okay," he said, and then awareness hit him. "Wait, wait. What about…"

Bruce cut him off. "You've been shot and you look exhausted. You're not fighting tonight. Have you been sleeping?"

Robin sighed heavily. "No. that woman? Her name is Kayla McLain. She was my English teacher last year. About a week ago, I saw her outside my window. I knew she could kill you or Alfred if she wanted to get to me. I had to protect you. That's also why I put you and KF up in that tree. If you tried to save me, then she would have automatically assumed that you were a wolf too. She would've hurt you and I couldn't let that happen."

Batman sighed again. "Get some sleep. You earned it, soldier," He then exited the room, leaving Robin alone. Robin took off his shirt and got under the covers. He dropped the second his head hit the pillow.

The next morning yielded a much more pleasant conversation.

Dick woke up late and walked downstairs groggily. He still had the bandages on from the night before but he didn't care. As he walked into the dining room, he saw Bruce in his usual spot and two plates of breakfast; one in front of Bruce and one where Dick would sit. Bruce sounded much calmer than he had last night, given time to adjust to the fact that his son was suffering lycanthropy.

"Morning, Dick. You slept well, I take it?" Greeted the billionaire.

"Yeah. G'morning," Robin replied before flopping down into his seat and digging into the fried eggs on his plate.

"Hey, Dick. Does it hurt to transform?" the Dark Knight asked curiously, head cocked to one side.

"Oh, yeah. It hurts like mad."

"Can you describe it?"

After a long moment of consideration, Robin concluded "I can't really describe it besides saying what it is. The fur is definitely itchy, which is why I take off my shirt when I do shift. Gosh, everything just hurts. I guess it would feel like being burned alive, if I had to compare it to something."

Batman furrowed his brows.

"Can't you shift in your clothes? Or do they get shredded?"

"Well, I can shift in most of my street clothes. I just have to take off my shades and jacket and my shoes and necklace. Most of my costume, though, I can't shift in. Stuff like boots, masks, belts, and capes don't work very well. They'd get destroyed or at least kicked off."

"When's mating season, for wolves?"

This question managed to catch the little acrobat off guard.

"_What? _Why do you want to know_ that?" _he asked, shocked and disgusted.

The Dark Knight easily picked up on what Robin thought he implied and corrected himself.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I just want to be prepared for it. I won't make you do anything you don't want to." The boy now calmed down a bit.

"I did an internet search and found out that it's usually from the middle of winter to the middle of spring, around April. We already passed it and you don't need to worry. It's tough though. As a guy, I already have a higher…drive for that. As a wolf who hangs out with girls during mating season, it takes a _lot _of self-control to not…you know."

Bruce nodded silently, and then had another thought.

"When's the next full moon?" he asked with urgency in his voice.

"Tonight."

"So I take it you'll be gone tonight?"

"Yep."

"I want to come with you."

Once again, Dick was caught off guard.

"Why?"

"I just want to make sure you don't change."

"Why are you worried about that? I'm not as new at this as you might think I am."

"Really? Because you said that you had trouble keeping the shift in even in partial moonlight. Imagine if you were caught in the thick of it. You could go out of control."

Dick listened carefully to Bruce's heartbeat and found him to be lying about his intentions.

"Bruce, you're lying. Remember how I said I could hear anything. I'm listening to your heartbeat and it's going way too fast for you to be telling the truth. Also, we have a system for going in before moonrise. That's why I leave for it so early. And even if I do change because of the full moon, I can still control myself." Of course, it was much harder to control himself when he had the temptation of the moon on him, but he kept that to himself.

"All right, fine. I'm curious as to what you really do on these nights."

"All you had to do was ask. I usually take the boat to the island. Then Rachel might show me some of her fighting techniques or something. Or we'll sit around the campfire and talk about band stuff. Then we have dinner, cooked over said campfire, and then we head to bed."

"Where do you sleep?"

"We have caves on the island. The girls share one between the three of them and I get one to myself. It used to be the guest room but I've pretty much claimed it."

More questions like these followed, though they weren't important enough to be remembered. Bruce finished the conversation with this.

"By the way, no crime fighting for a while."

Dick was enraged. "What?! _Why?!_"

"Your shoulder. You know you can't fight with an injury like that."

"The bullet wound is gone by now. I have a healing factor. I'm fine.

"Rachel said you had some muscle damage too. How long does that take to heal?"

Robin sighed and looked down. "Five days at least. A week at most."

"Then you're off duty for a week. I don't want you hurting yourself."

The conversation would have ended here, but then Bruce had one more question.

"How did Rachel know to do that? She's a teenager so, how did she know exactly what to do?"

"She once told me that she rides horses. She cares for a lot of them at an old, shut-down barn; though, she won't say which. Something about abused horses. She said that she picked up how to do that stuff from caring for them after they've been hurt in spill."

Bruce didn't reply. Instead he simply put his dishes in the dishwasher and went downstairs to the Batcave, leaving Dick to wonder what he was to do for the rest of the day.


	18. Chapter 18

Bruce headed down to the Batcave for a little research before heading in to work. He sat down at the computer and searched werewolves, coming up with thousands of results in under one second. Some of them were images while others were sites. As he scrolled through the web pages, what he read had him a little more than concerned. Some of them said that werewolves could not go to heaven, while others said that they were extremely dangerous and should be killed on sight. Obviously, Bruce was unwilling to end his son's life, even if it was to save others. Robin said he was in control, but how much of a danger could he be if he wasn't?

Not wanting to dwell on the thought anymore, Bruce checked the time and did some more searching, this time for GIA; the band that Dick had become increasingly involved in. he was in the middle of watching one of their music videos when a hand reached in front of him and paused the video. He hadn't realized that Dick had snuck up on him. The boy pulled up a chair and looked at the Bat with a slightly guilty expression on his face. He had seen what Bruce had been looking at in regards to lycanthropy.

"Dick," the billionaire began, "how many times have you lost control? I mean _really _lost control to the point where you aren't even in your right mind."

"Thankfully, I've only lost control once. The first time I changed."

"What happened?"

"I'm not proud of it, but I almost killed Rachel. We were both under the influence of the moon so we can't remember much between the two of us."

"So what you're saying is: I can't trust you."

"That's not what I'm saying at all. You're the one who asked if I had ever lost control. While I can't go out on full moons I _am_ in control of my powers!" Now Dick was edging on the defensive side because of what Bruce had said.

Bruce held his hands off of the keyboard in an unspoken "sorry." He changed the subject in order to avoid seriously ticking Robin off.

"Can you be forced to shift?"

Dick cocked his head, anger forgotten, in confusion.

"Do you know of any methods anyone could use to force you to change? If there are, then those could easily be used as blackmail."

"Are you planning on blackmailing me?" Dick asked with a sly grin, then answered more seriously. "Besides the full moon? I don't know. There could be, but I've never been given one, obviously."

Bruce was silent for a long time, trying to find out how to word the question in his mind. He decided at last to just spit it out.

"Are you ever going to tell the rest of the team about this?"

Now it was Dick's turn to be silent.

"I don't know. So much has changed so fast in the last six months that I'm not quite sure of anything right now. Hopefully, I'll be able to break it to them gently if I ever do decide to tell them."

"Well sooner or later, they're going to find out. I'd think you'd rather it be from your mouth than if you got hit by the full moon in front of them or something else like that."

"I don't know. I'm just not ready for it yet."

The two heroes sat in silence until Bruce had to go to work. The human hadn't had the heart to tell his son about what he had found in regards to lycanthropy and heaven. As he parked his car he managed to put the subject out of his mind, hoping that the sites were wrong and that Dick would still go to whatever heaven he believed in.


	19. Chapter 19

It was now getting towards thanksgiving. Dick had been a werewolf for almost a full year and had kept his secret from everyone (except Wally) on the team. He was at the cave with the team when batman called them in for a mission assignment.

"Team. I'm sending you to investigate some activity on a small island on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania."

Dick's eyes widened behind his mask and his eyebrows went up. He hadn't even noticed anything weird on the islands.

"There have been a few fires there, as if someone were camping out. Locals reported voices were being heard." The Bat continued as he showed them the island on a map. Dick was definitely curious now; it wasn't an island that he had been to yet but it was fairly close to the island where he had his campout with the girls.

"Yes, sir. We will go now and report anything we find," Kaldur stated. They boarded the bio-ship and left for Pennsylvania while Dick worried slightly in his seat. He had never noticed anything on any of the islands and the one they were headed to was well within his earshot. Shouldn't he have heard something, or at least smelled smoke? He tried putting it out of his mind once they reached their destination.

"Split up. We need to search for what or whoever is here. _Do not _attack unless they pose a threat. Just ask them…" Kaldur was cut off as a woman with light brown hair appeared out of nowhere. Only one person on the team recognized her: it was Kayla. Dick wanted to run but had nowhere to go since M'gann had sent the bio-ship away.

_"Robin, are you _scared_?" _a concerned voice chided in his head. He hadn't realized that Megan had set up her telepathic link. He mentally groaned.

"What are you doing here, Kayla? What do want?" he poured as much hostility as he could into his words as he spat them out of his mouth.

Kayla just laughed and took a few steps closer. The team got into battle stances but, quick as lightning, she injected something into Robin's arm and stepped back. A grin that would have made the joker proud graced her lips as robin yelled and dropped to his hands and knees.

By now, Robin was so used to the pain of controlled shifting that he was shocked when it hurt more to be forced out. As hard as he tried to fight it, he simply couldn't.

"_Robin, what's wrong?!"_ Artemis asked frantically. A slew of worried emotions passed around the group as the woman named Kayla just watched their teammate in agony, smirking a toothy grin.

First, Robin's mask fell off of his face as he ripped out his com, revealing smoldering amber eyes while feral fangs grew out of his mouth. Then his knees reversed their direction as grey hair began to grow everywhere.

"What did you do to him?" Aqualad roared as he slashed at Kayla with his water whips.

Kayla dodged them and said "I didn't do anything to him. I simply brought out what was already there." She cackled.

"Guys, I think I lost the mental link," Miss Martian reported. By now, Robin had finished shifting and was growling threateningly at Kayla, hackles raised. Kayla simply smirked and grabbed a handgun, although she didn't fire it.

Miss Martian managed to get the link back up and everyone checked in.

"_I'm here_," reported Artemis.

"_Right here, sweet cheeks_," Wally flirted.

"_We need a plan, now_," said Kaldur.

"_I'll rip her apart_." Superboy.

"_I think I might get to her first,"_ Surprisingly; Robin.

"_Are you okay? What happened?"_ Superboy sounded uncharacteristically concerned.

"_I can't really explain that right now."_

"_Well, can you control yourself? I can feel another presence in your mind," _asked Megan.

"_Yeah, I'm fine. What you're feeling is the wolf half of my psyche. I can control that,"_

_ "Very, well. Can you fight like that?" _Kaldur asked.

A flash of something appeared on the edge of Dick's vision. He looked up and saw a very familiar expanse of white in the starry night sky. If he looked closer, he could also see chocolate brown and even, though it was well camouflaged, black.

_"I may not have to," _replied Dick, mentally smiling.

Then, out of nowhere, a white blur came screaming out of the sky and gave Kayla a solid kick to the shoulder. The thing landed, revealing Owl with two massive white wings on her back and a metric ton of handguns strapped to her body. Another figure dashed from behind Kayla and grabbed both her arms, Hawk pinned them behind her. Owl strolled forward and placed a hand firmly on the joint where Kayla's neck met her shoulder, knocking her out.

"You alright, Robin?" a slightly high pitched voice asked him. The gunmetal wolf turned around to see Osprey with all her black-winged glory. The wolf nodded and whimpered. She ruffled the fur around his ears before he could even growl at her for it.

"I was out flying when I heard him yell. I could see Kayla and your team so I called Hawk and Osprey and we came as quick as we could," said Owl. They weren't in on the telepathic link and Robin couldn't talk, so the team filled them in on what they were thinking.

"Robin says that he can't shift out," stated Megan.

Owl picked up the syringe and examined it. After a second of running it under her computer watch, she said "He's been forced out by the chemicals in this syringe. He'll be fine tomorrow morning."

"What should we tell Batman when we get back?" Miss Martian asked, calling in the bio-ship.

"The truth. He already knows." Rachel stated, since Robin couldn't speak for himself.

The team climbed back on to the bio-ship, all of them still in varying degrees of shock, while the newly revealed bird-girls decided to fly back to the cave for themselves. When they turned up at Mount Justice Batman took one look at Robin and immediately said "I assume that it turned out to be a trap, then?"

"Yes, a trap. A woman named Kayla injected something into Robin and he immediately changed into a wolf." Kaldur reported as M'gann levitated an unconscious Kayla out of the bio-ship. Batman nodded and ordered everyone, even the bird-girls, to get some sleep and that everything can be addressed in the morning. None of them argued and they went to bed. All except for the nocturnal Rachel, who went out flying and to catch what would be breakfast the next morning.

The next morning, Robin woke up to find himself in human form again; aching and slightly sick from the toxins that hadn't quite flushed out of his system yet. He walked into the kitchen where he could smell cooked meat: mice. He paused at the concerned and awkward stares that he got from his teammates but continued to where Rachel was making stir-fry, listening only to the pounding of his own heart.

"Are you alright, my friend?" Kaldur asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Dick replied.

"What happened to you?" Connor asked, "You totally turned into a wolf last night!"

"I know. The truth is, I'm a werewolf. I've been this way for almost a year."

The team stood in awe for a moment. Then Artemis asked why Dick didn't tell them.

"It's because, well, I just wasn't ready. In fact I still wasn't quite ready last night. I had hoped that I could hide it for at least a while longer. But I guess you do have a right to know."

"How did you become a werewolf?" queried the Atlantean.

"I was born that way. Half werewolf, half human."

For a full minute, the team stood in silence. Then Superboy pointed at the girls with wings and asked "What about them? Why in the world do they have wings?" in an enraged tone.

"Well, we wanted to have wings. Isn't it cool?" Nicole chirped, not even the least bit offended by Connor's fury, and ruffled some of her night black feathers.

"I was inspired by _Maximum Ride _and so I began experimenting with human-animal splicing. We three are the first and only human test subjects." Rachel cut in, placing a massive plate of stir-fry on the kitchen counter. "Eat up!" she announced.

The team began to eat slowly. All except for the bird-girls and KF, who needed to eat more anyway, and Robin, who genuinely appreciated the taste of mouse, bugs, and plants.

"This is really good. What's in it?" the scarlet speedster said with a mouth full of campfire food.

Rachel listed the ingredients in detail and enjoyed the various reactions from the non-initiated team. Kaldur had raised an eyebrow but kept on eating. Wally had gagged and spat out the food in his mouth. Megan looked disgusted and Artemis ran to the bathroom to vomit.

Questions passed around the group and, when they were satisfied with their answers, M'gann cooked lunch and everything fell into place as if Robin hadn't been forced to share his secret with everyone he loved. Dick was truly lucky to have such good friends.


	20. Chapter 20

"Nightwing!"

Richard Grayson was startled out of his memories by a voice calling his name. Why had he not noticed any other heartbeats or scents around him? Then he remembered. He was on a mission, at night, under the full moon. His reminiscing had broken his concentration somewhat and so he now found himself in excruciating amounts of pain. As he was trying to get the shift under control he turned to the place where the voice had come from, rubbing the back of his ear to help keep his calm, a shred of humanity lost all those years ago.

"I said 'are you okay?' You look _really _pale, are you sick?" asked the new Robin, Tim Drake.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Dick lied. He knew that even the Bible says that you shouldn't lie but he didn't want Tim to know what was hurting him. True, Tim already knew about Dick's lycanthropy, everyone on the team did, but the 19 year old Nightwing just didn't want to admit to his pain. Tim saw right through this.

"We both know that's not true. Really, what's wrong?" Without even thinking, Tim looked up into the night sky. The moon was full and bright and shining right onto where he and Nightwing were keeping watch!

"Nightwing, are you insane?" he hissed so that no one would hear them.

"You're just picking up on that now?" Richard asked sarcastically, using a joke he remembered hearing Rachel use all the time.

"It's a full moon! You need to get out of here, you're shifting; I can tell!"

"I'm fine. I've got myself under control." However, Dick knew he wasn't as "in control" as he thought. He was weaker because he hadn't slept in two days (perhaps you can sense a pattern beginning to form) and, for some reason, this full moon had more effect on him than any other. Where he could usually somewhat comfortably keep himself human under its gleam, he was now sweating profusely and felt like he really was sick.

Unfortunately for him, M'gann had the psychic link up and instantly the whole team knew something was up with their former leader. Thanks to Tim's thoughts, they also knew what it was.

"_Nightwing, taking into account tonight's full moon and your condition, I am forcing you to return to base and get some rest,"_ came Aqualad's voice in Dick's, and everyone else's, head.

"_I'm fine. I can handle it._"

"_Clearly, you can't. Not tonight you can't. Get to the nearest tube, go home and sleep,_" Kaldur ordered, not leaving any room for argument.

"**Get some rest, Boy Wonder,**" came a strange voice. It wasn't in his head like the mind link was, but he didn't think that Tim had heard it. The voice was one he hadn't heard before but was calming and forced him, beyond all reason, to trust it all the same. He lazily thought it sounded familiar but he was too tired to really take notice.

Dick sighed and nodded a good bye to Tim before heading in the direction of the nearest Zeta tube. He punched in the codes for Mount Justice and walked in.

"_Recognized: Nightwing B01,_" the computer chimed. Batman was the only one in the lobby of the cave at the time.

"Nightwing," he greeted, not even looking up from the screens he was working on. Then he looked up at his former protégé. "You're back early. Did the mission go well?"

"Don't know. Tim and I got stuck on watch duty. Aqualad sent me home to get some rest." Batman noted the slightly deeper, raspier, more strained quality of Dick's voice but said nothing of it, knowing it was a full moon and that he was probably tired. Instead he simply said "Get some sleep." Nightwing nodded and walked off to his room in the mountain.

Once there, he pulled off all of his equipment and some of his uniform-mask, communicator, belt, eskrima sticks, boots-and sat on his bed, breathing heavy. Strangely, he…_wanted_ to change. He hadn't for so long and an unusual part of him missed that. But he was far too tired to force himself to shift tonight. He looked over at the spot of moonlight cast on his floor by the well camouflaged window. It looked so…inviting, drawing him in like an old friend and an old enemy at the same time. Dick just couldn't resist.

He took off his shirt and approached the moonlight, slowly. For a reason he couldn't quite understand, he hesitated for a moment, gathering up his courage, before stepping into the squares of silver. Then, he let go.

Instantly, pain exploded in every part of him. It was more extreme than his first shift, more so than being forced out by Kayla, even more than every injury he had ever suffered combined; but he would not show it. Instead of focusing on the pain he was in, Nightwing tried to focus of staying in his own mind and not letting the wolf take over. As quickly as it had come, the pain subsided. Dick was now a wolf once more.

Panting and whimpering slightly, Dick noticed just how hungry and tired he was. Knowing there wasn't anything he found appetizing in kitchen, nor could he open the fridge door anyway, he settled on going hunting. He slipped out of his bedroom; door left slightly ajar, and made his way to the hanger door. He howled much like Aisling used to howl before she learned English, and the door opened to him. The computer chimed his name but he was sure Bruce wouldn't mind if he went out.

Finally outside, Dick raised his nose to the air. He didn't notice, nor would he care if he did, the scents of feathers and subtle farm smells and faint gunpowder. He was so hungry that all he could smell was the herd of deer that were fairly close to his position in the woods. He ran towards them, selecting one smallish deer for himself and snapping its neck after scratching its ankles so it couldn't get away. Six birds watched him from their hidden places in the trees; two ospreys, two red-tailed hawks, and two snowy white barn owls. Three of them, the only three that could speak due to being mostly human, were whispering things to each other that no one but them could understand. Dick was hearing this, obviously, but he found it impossible to care as he gorged on the animal in front of him, crimson blood staining his mouth.

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Dick howled outside of the mountain, prompting the hanger door to open for him. He strode in, a mere ten minutes after he had left, and made a bee-line for his room. The Dark Knight took notice of the blood stains around his son's mouth but he said nothing. He had had a feeling Dick had hunted in the short time he was gone. So long as there were no casualties on his account, Bruce was fine with it.

Dick staggered into his room, fatigue becoming more and more pronounced as he digested his meal, and closed it with his nose. Climbing up onto his bed, he curled up and fell victim to the pleasantly wolfish dreams the combination of full moons and sleep always seemed to bring him.

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Nightwing awoke in his bedroom in human form. Stretching, hearing to his back pop and crack, he listened intently to his teammates' slow breathing as they slept. He was always the first one up. He walked out of his bedroom after washing the blood and gore from his face and flopped down on a couch in the living room, smiling contentedly.

"Good sleep then, I take it?" Bruce asked as he walked in.

"A _very_ good sleep," Dick replied as his smile turned into a slight smirk.

"You still have a little blood on your mouth."

Dick wiped all over his mouth in hopes of wiping away the evidence that he had made a kill the night before.

"Better," The Dark Knight stated. The two then fell into the awkward silence that always seemed to exist nowadays between the father and son. Batman left into the kitchen.

"BOO!" screamed a voice as two hands grabbed his shoulders. Without even thinking, Dick grabbed one of the arms and flipped it over him, standing up as he did so. The figure that landed flawlessly in front of him was that of a young woman, perhaps a little bit younger than Nightwing himself, with long dark brown hair and green eyes. "Hello again," she chirped, a mischievous and almost knowing look in those dazzling jades.

"Who are you?" he demanded as batman, Barbara and Tim walked in. Before he got an answer two forces slammed into his right side and forced him to the ground. As he struggled to get up from the spot where he was pinned, he was subjected to the giggling and inane babbling of two more young women.

"You mean to say that you don't recognize us?" the one with shorter, almost black hair asked, followed by more squeals and giggles. Now that he thought about it, the voice of the first girl sounded _very _similar to the voice that told him to go home last night. Even the appearances of all three girls seemed familiar. The nail in the coffin, however, was the fact that the mountain had not started blasting "_intruder alert_" yet, leaving only one answer to the identities of the three girls.

However, Nightwing was too gobsmacked to actually voice their names; a subject that didn't matter as the girl who had initially surprised him grinned mischievously, seeming to read his expression.

The girl walked up and smacked Dick in the jaw, shaking him out of his shock. Rubbing his jaw, he finally managed to speak.

"Hello to you, too, Rachel."

Rachel smiled, as did Abby and Nicole, and they grabbed Nightwing and nearly crushed him with a group hug.

"You've got some explaining to do," Barbara began, making their presence known.

"This is Rachel," he pointed to the girl with the long brown hair. "…Nicole," the girl with the short black hair. "…And Abby," He gestured to the really tall girl with medium length light brown hair. As if on cue, all three girls fluttered white, black, and chocolate wings; respectively. Nightwing and Batman were the only two to not be utterly shocked; and with Batman, you never know.

Barbara was the first to regain the ability to speak.

"How do you know them?"

"I met them when I was a kid, just turned fourteen. Um…" he trailed off, hating to bring up the topic of lycanthropy. Five years a werewolf and he still loathed his condition.

"He had just turned into a werewolf and had no clue how to handle it. We helped him," Abby cleared up, a fast talker as usual.

"And the wings?" Tim spoke up.

"Genetic experiments. So where have you been? I haven't seen you guys in years."

"Around. You know-making a living, putting food on the table, trying not to get shot-the usual," Abby sassed, tipping her head from one side to another as she listed the things. "What about you?"

"Same."

Rachel spoke up, addressing Tim and Babs this time. "I'm guessing you're Tim Drake, then? And Barbara Gordon? Lovely to meet you." She smiled and offered her hand, Tim and Barbara shaking it in a slightly dazed fashion.

"Would you like to come on a camping trip with us?" Nicole enthused.

"Like when we were kids?" Nightwing asked, knowing full well the answer.

"We'll be out for two nights. There'll be campfires and open fire cooking, even hot dogs and s'mores!"

With a glance over to Batman, who gave no movement at all, Barbara said "All right. We'd love to go."


	21. Really long Author's note

**Chapter 21 (author's note)**

**So, yeah. My first story and it went **_**everywhere!**_** There were so many plot points that I dropped for no reason that I really wanted to make into bigger parts of the story. So, to give myself a little closure, I've listed a few things about this story that didn't make the cut. Think of it like deleted scenes and behind the scenes trivia.**

***I hate how I just dropped GIA almost all together. In a video I wanted the fictional gang to film, they're playing **_**Monster **_**by **_**Skillet. **_**Dick had been allowed to write the idea for the video so he has the idea of getting Rachel to use her makeup arts to make everyone look like werewolves, shoot the video backwards, and when played forwards the video has everybody changing from humanoid werewolves (like teen wolf) to humans again. I also wanted that video to be how Tim found out about the bird-girls but in the end, I really wasn't happy with the idea.**

***I wanted to have more scenes with the girls too, especially with them fighting. *sighs* Perhaps I should write a fanfic detailing their lives? Tell me what you think!**

***I'm going to leave it to you to write a story of Tim and Babs camping with Dick and the others. **_**Please ask me or give me credit for the idea if you do, though.**_

***I think everyone, even the OCs, were really OOC in this one, maybe in all of my fics to come. Hope you guys enjoy characters that are **_**way **_**OOC!**

***Maybe more scenes with Dick hunting? Perhaps his inner thoughts on the subject? What do you think?**

***I probably should have done more with Dick being a Christian too. *sighs again***

***More of Dick in wolf form?**

***More than just a casual mention of Rachel with the horses?**

***Deeper friendships?**

***Screw it, what do **_**you **_**think I should have added more of?**

***I worked out the scents of the girls from the fact that they have wings (feathers), are from an agricultural state (farm smells), and that Rachel uses guns (gun powder). Speaking of which, should I have added more of Dick taking notice of the smells of people? More of him using wolf abilities in general?**

***Trivia: When Robin is freaking out because Kayla was blowing on a dog whistle, I got the inspiration for that scene from the original movie **_**Teen Wolf.**_** In the movie, Scott (played by Michael J. Fox) is in a hardware store when a kid begins to sample various dag whistles. Scott experiences pain during the whistles' notes.**

***Trivia/disclaimer: in chapter 13, where the girls are performing aerial maneuvers, one of them is called the Fahrenheit. This is a reference to a roller coaster of the same name in Hershey Park, Pennsylvania. This roller coaster includes, among other things, a straight vertical climb followed by a vertical descent. This place is fairly close to where the girls are supposed to live so I figured they would have gone there and, at least once, imitated the rides. I do not, nor do I claim to, own Hershey Park in any way, shape, or form. If I did, you can bet that I wouldn't be writing stories online.**

**I hope you enjoyed my story! There's plenty more that I'm unhappy with but I like this all the same. Please read and review it. Thank you for your time, have a great day, and GOD BLESS!**


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